


The McCall Pack

by CuriousClockwork



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Action, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Background Plot, F/F, F/M, Family, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Fluff, Future Fic, Gen, Happy Ending, M/M, McCall Pack, Original Character(s), Pack, Pack Dynamics, Pack Feels, Post-Series, Some Plot, True Alpha Scott McCall
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-16
Updated: 2018-07-13
Packaged: 2019-02-15 18:21:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 57,755
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13036800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CuriousClockwork/pseuds/CuriousClockwork
Summary: Post Series Finale. Scott McCall never intended to be a werewolf and he certainly never intended to become a True Alpha. While both things were an unexpected turn of events, they were soon welcomed into his life. With this new slot in life, Scott would eventually become an alpha to a growing pack of friends and family that he would do anything to protect. Forever and always.





	1. This Might Hurt

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story follows the McCall pack as it slowly, but surely grows. It is set post series finale, but everyone is alive. Characters that left during the show will return, I plan to add characters that were never in the pack, and there are four original characters that will eventually join. This story will hopefully focus on the pack, their relationships with each other, and just overall normal everyday moments in their lives as a group of family and friends.
> 
> While for the most part I will be writing about them as people, most of the pack is some type of creature, so I also hope to include more ‘animalistic’ things like scents and physical contact. This story is based upon platonic relationships even though there are couples in the story. Some ideas may stem from my own experiences since I have 3 sisters and we are not ashamed to share hugs and just be close in general. I know that interactions like this can sometimes come across as odd when it is brothers, or two males that are just friends and not a couple, but I will probably have these types of interactions between everyone no matter what their gender is and what their relationship is.

**Published December 16, 2017 … Revised June 24, 2018**

**Inspired Song:[Selena Gomez & Marshmello – Wolves](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH4E_t3m3xM)**

.

.

Graduating from high school meant a lot to Scott McCall. A lot had happened to him in those four years that the average teenager might have not been able to handle. But for this young man, nothing was impossible. Throughout it all, Scott met many people that changed his life and he even lost a few of them along the way. Through every hardship and challenge that he was put up against, he managed to come out on top and it only made him stronger.

It was with this strength that he found within himself and those closest to him, that Scott would eventually gain the powers that would make him become a True Alpha werewolf. And with this new status, Scott would become an alpha to a growing pack of friends and family that he would do anything to protect. Forever and always.

.

.

It was the summer just after Scott and his friends graduated. Celebrations had taken place, and everyone kept asking them the same question, “So what’s next?”

It was a decent enough question that any fresh graduate should have been able to give a reply to, but for the four pack members, it was difficult to answer. They all had their dreams, but they each worried about leaving and going their separate ways. _What about the pack_ , they would think. What about leaving everyone behind.

Scott, Stiles, Malia, and Lydia constantly held this question in their minds and each hoped they would be able to find their own answers one day.

Scott would worry back and forth if leaving for college would be worth leaving behind Beacon Hills to be protected by Liam and the other betas. He believed Liam could handle it, but Scott worried if he himself could. He did not know if he _wanted_ to leave. Sure, college sounded exciting but what would he study? He got through high school wonderfully after he promised to do better, but with college, Scott felt that there was no subject that he was passionate about to gain a degree in.

Stiles would consider either leaving for the FBI or leaving his father. He had told his dad that he had loved the feeling of saving so many lives throughout all the adventures he and Scott had went through and that he wanted to help people, but he just did not know if he was being too ambitious about joining the FBI. He also worried about his father. If he were to leave, his dad would be alone for the first time since Claudia passed. Sure, Noah would have Melissa and Parrish too look after him, but with no son there to worry about his health every minute of every day, Stiles worried that anything could happen.

Lydia would need to choose to either follow her head or her heart. With her smarts, any university would be ecstatic to take her. Her understanding of everything mathematical would be greatly appreciated wherever she would choose to go. However, for the first time, Lydia had something holding her back. Ever since she told Stiles that she never said “it” back and he kissed her replying that she did not need to, she had been on cloud nine. Knowing that he loved her as much as she loved him was a wonderful feeling. They were together, and they were happy. But for Lydia, she did not know if should could ever leave Stiles behind now that she had him.

Malia would decide if being alone or being with others was the best choice for her. After the fiasco with the Desert Wolf, Malia was now alone. Sure, Peter was there, but their relationship was far from being a father and daughter bond – even if it was slowly getting there. Derek was another that was still around, but she felt slightly odd around him still since they had never had the chance to grow up as cousins. Another thing that concerned Malia was that ever since she turned back into a human, all she had done was stay in Beacon Hills and not gotten to travel enough.

Scott had welcomed her into his pack however, and she felt safe with everyone. Being in a pack was better than being alone, she realized. She loved having people at her side. She loved talking girly with Lydia and fighting alongside Scott. But Malia still occasionally wondered if going on her own for a while would be good for her to better find herself.

Eventually, all four of them came to their own decisions.

Deaton confronted Scott when he was at work one day about how he was amazing with the animals. He told Scott that he had been a natural at taking care of all the lives that were brought in before he was an alpha and even before he was a werewolf. Becoming a veterinarian would be something that he would be amazing at and if he were to apprentice under Deaton, he would be able to teach Scott everything from actual veterinary lessons and still teach him about the supernatural world.

And so, Scott decided that attending UC Davis would be perfect for him. Only an hour drive away, he would be able to commute easily. Scott found he could make it all work out as he would be able to study under the colleges veterinary program, apprentice under Deaton, and stay in Beacon Hills – close to his pack and family.

Stiles eventually confided in his dad. They talked it out and Noah was able to convince his son that following his dream was not hurting the Sheriff. Of course, he would miss his son (he better call him at least once a month) but Stiles should not have to feel obligated to stay in Beacon Hills because his old man would feel lonely.

Noah also crossed his heart in promise that he would watch out for his own health. He would try to eat right and told Stiles that Parrish would always be hanging over his shoulder anyways, making sure he would stick to his pledge.

Thus, Stiles found the courage to enroll into the internship at Quantico. He planned to start the fall right after graduation, wanting to get in right away. Talking to Lydia, she agreed to drive up there with him to both help him move in and so that they would be able to spend some time alone. They agreed that no matter what she chose to do, they would make it work out. They both finally had each other and neither wanted to let go.

Lydia decided that she would make both Stiles and university work together. Knowing that Stiles was headed to the East Coast helped her narrow down to few prestigious universities. She eventually decided that Yale’s Applied Mathematics course would be advantageous to both her and the pack.

The major would steer her towards a career in biochemistry where she would be able to better understand supernaturals and help in any way she scientifically could. While her plan was to eventually attend college close to Stiles, she wanted year break between schooling. So, while she would go to Virginia to help her boyfriend move in, she would come back to spend one last year in Beacon Hills before starting the next chapter of her life.

Malia made her choice to travel the world. Ever since Scott helped her regain her human form, all Malia had done was stay close to the pack. Sure, she loved them as family now, but at the beginning, she could admit to herself that she stayed as more as a way of saying “Thank you.”

With no proper education, she had learned what she could from Lydia and Stiles to graduate high school. It was difficult enough to accomplish that, that Malia had no want to even try out the college life. Instead, she wanted to find herself. She felt lost at times when she would see that her friends knew who they were. They had grown up in a normal house with normal parents and a (mostly) normal life.

For Malia though, all she had for most of her life was a dirt den in the middle of a forest. Ever since she regained her human form and she had been able to slowly get acclimated to life again, Malia had still felt that something was missing. She had confided in Lydia one day and the strawberry blonde told her that when people would feel lost, sometimes they would decide that sightseeing around the world would give a greater perspective. It would help her discover what kind of a person she was.

Lydia also made sure that Malia knew the pack understood what she was doing. She would be able to travel without the worry that the pack thought she had abandoned them. Everyone needed their own space sometimes and Malia deserved to travel on her own for a while. Her plan was to start small, hitchhiking around the west side of the country. She was not at all worried about possible danger as she could easily handle herself in a fight and her hope was to find the occasional job to save up for bigger trips. For one last summer though, she would stay close to her pack before she would head out for her journey.

.

.

Thus, that summer, the four friends spent every minute together. With a plan for their futures, the young adults wanted one last summer with no worries of responsibility hanging on their shoulders.

The pack had their chance to act like the kids they were. They had the time of their lives with the clear summer sky over their heads, the warm breeze on their skin, and the sting of lemonade on their tongues. They enjoyed three months of peace that hid away all their worries.

It was as Deaton had once told Scott. It was Regression to the Mean and everyone spent that summer in the middle of the spectrum. No horrible events took place and nothing completely amazing happened either.

School, however, had to eventually start once again. Stiles and Lydia left for Virginia two weeks before his classes were to start. Scott commuted an hour everyday to his college as he had planned and even dropped Malia off near his college so that she could get a head start in her travels across the large country. They were all going their separate ways, but they all made a promise to each other and the rest of their pack that they would always keep in touch.

Liam, Hayden, Mason, and Corey were to start their junior year of high school.

Hayden had almost planned to leave with her family, arguing that it was unsafe for her parents and sister to stay in Beacon Hills any longer. Scott was able to convince her otherwise. While he agreed that they were probably going to face different challenges now that one of their children was a supernatural, they would be safer if they were close to the pack; they would be safer if they were close to Scott.

That school year was one of their more peaceful years. No evil alpha came to attack them, no doctor wanted any bodies, and no vengeful hunter was tailing them. Everyone lead their own lives, and they all made a point to always come home to Beacon Hills for the holidays to celebrate as one large family.

The entire year flew by before it was once again the start of a new school year. The youngest of the pack were to start their final year of schooling. Lydia planned to finally head off to college and be near Stiles while Malia planned to go to Paris.

It was all put on hold though, as soon enough the school was turned upside-down when it was taken over by Tamora Monroe, a guidance counselor turned bloodthirsty hunter and a student body that became fueled by the fear from the Anuk-Ite.

Lydia and Malia put their plans on hold as they once again helped their alpha to save Beacon Hills.

Fortunately, Scott had the help of his entire pack to save the town and keep it in tact. People they thought they would never see again came back as reinforcements and allies to take down the army of unwilling people. Eventually, the hunter escaped, the creature was defeated, and their reinforcements left once more.

It was an exhausting semester for everyone. But it was finally over.

The pack gained a few more allies around town as the secret was slowly let out. Some of the high school population now knew that there were supernatural creatures that lived side by side with them and a few more townspeople knew as well. It was surprising to see how quiet most stayed even after learning everything. No major organization had come to Beacon Hills so obviously, the residents knew that it would be safer to keep the information to themselves.

Even with this knowledge, most things had not changed. Liam and Nolan eventually shook and hands and apologized to each other and agreed on co-captaincy for Lacrosse while the sheriff and Parrish were able to include more people on assignments that knew how to investigate strange cases with a more careful eye.

In the aftermath of it all, Malia was even able to come to a decision about herself. She had felt something between Scott and herself that had been slowly growing ever since Kira had left for New York. It was only during some of the more traumatic events recently with Monroe that Malia did something about it. They grew closer as they tried out their new relationship.

It was then that she saw a blind Scott sitting on the library steps. The fear she felt for him was stronger than anything she had ever felt before. She would have done anything to help him in that moment. When Lydia told her to kiss him, she did so right away. And that was when she knew.

She loved Scott.

She would do anything for him if it meant she could stay by his side. She had found herself. Malia now knew that she had always belonged to McCall pack whether she knew at the time or not. So, she cancelled her trip to Paris. She cancelled _all_ her trips. She had found what she was looking for and never wanted to leave again. Sure, it might have seemed like a drastic decision if she were anyone else, but Malia knew herself. She was a confident young woman and if she felt different in a year or ten, she would not be afraid to speak her mind and tell Scott as much.

Malia wanted to live in the moment and right now, that included Scott and the love she felt for him.

.

.

The December after the events with Monroe passed and soon, New Year’s was celebrated with everyone. Stiles had quickly left after the defeat of Monroe as he had been freaked out that he might miss his semester finals. As soon as he finished them however, he came home right away for a month of winter break. When the break ended, Lydia planned to leave with him to start her own classes as university student.

Now that Malia planned to settle down into Beacon for good, she was able to find a job at the local café that had recently opened by their own Danny Māhealani. Scott was able to save up enough as well that he and Malia moved into an apartment. No one quite thought that the two of them moving in together was strange even though they had only been dating for three months. They had already been close even when they had been friend, and besides, who would challenge anything Malia wanted.

 Liam had finally been able to buy his first car with his job at the grocery store near his house and the other three young pack members settled into their own jobs and routines as everyone slowly but surely also found their place as a regular people with regular lives.

Everyone was once again trying to settle back into their lives as both a member of the McCall pack and a resident of Beacon Hills, California.

.

.

The early night air held a chill as early spring weather had not reached Beacon quite yet. Scott had been wrapping up his shift at the animal clinic, ready to head home for the day. He was at the front of the building, turning the sign to read _Closed_ when his phone began to ring.

The caller ID told him that it was Chris Argent. It grabbed his attention since Scott had seen Chris recently when he drifted through town around New Years to give a quick hello. He would not have called so soon after their last meeting if it was not important.

Quickly answering, Scott soon found out through the panting on the other side that Chris was in a bit of trouble and was asking for him as backup. Chris had been meeting with two packs in Arizona when they were suddenly ambushed by hunters and Chris felt that reinforcements were needed.

“While I wouldn’t usually ask for help in these types of situations, I thought you would want to know who the hunters were,” came Chris’s explanation.

“It’s okay, you know I’ll help if I can. Who is it?”

“Monroe.”

Scott’s stomach sunk. If Monroe was involved, anything could happen. Scott always tried to find the good in people, but even for him, he knew that Monroe was dedicated to her ideals and would never change. Without hesitating, Scott gave his reply.

“Where are you?”

“Flagstaff.”

“I’ll be there.”

“Hurry if you can. I’ll try to hold them off for a few-” Chris’s phone cut off as the sound of a fight had begun coming through to Scott’s end.

Rushing to the back room of the clinic, Scott found his boss Alan Deaton placing their recent patient in a kennel. He told Deaton what was happening and where he was headed. When he got a nod of understanding, Scott turned back around and sprinted out of the building to his car.

Calling Liam, he told him the same thing he told Deaton along with the command that he was to in charge while he was gone. He also asked Liam to call his mom and the rest of the pack to let them know where he was going.

As he hung up with Liam, Scott noticed that Chris had sent him a text with latitude and longitude coordinates. Placing them into his phone, he saw that it would take him about nine and a half hours to get to Chris.

He made it in eight.

When Scott finally reached an old farm on the outskirts of Flagstaff, Arizona, he easily was able to spot where he should head. A tower of smoke was slowly climbing from the roof of a barn at the back of the property. The fire was consuming the building as the fire raged on, giving its surroundings a heated glow.

With both the help of the fire and his enhanced sight, Scott was able to spot Chris leaning out from behind the corner of the house on the property. He was shouting while he swung his arms towards himself. Scott could see three figures hurrying toward the older man, their faces smudged in soot and sweat. Their body language spoke of exhaustion as they soon fell in behind him.

It was as Chris was making sure they were properly hidden behind the corner that he turned and spotted Scott. After pausing in surprise, he gave another gesture with his arms, beckoning him quickly to their side.

Running through a field of bullets and arrows, Scott eventually was able to reach their side as he slid in the dirt dodging an arrow as it zipped passed his shoulder. Greeting him with a silent nod, Chris turned back to the three other werewolves and introduced them to each other. With a lull in the fighting and a barrier with the house, Chris turned back to Scott and filled him in on what was happening.

.

.

There had been a meeting going on between Chris and the two packs that lived in the Arizona area.

Even though Monroe had only been a hunter for almost six months, she had become notorious with supernaturals as being one of the more vicious ones. Chris had set up the meeting to warn the two packs that she was seen to be active on this side of the state recently with a lot of manpower and that the two packs should consider fleeing before they would be slaughtered.

Both groups told Chris they were proud of their home though. They were confident that they would be able to hold their own and perhaps even be the ones to take down this infamous hunter. And that was when she attacked them. She had somehow got wind that there was going to be more than a few werewolves in one location and in her eyes, there was no better way to get rid of those monsters then all together at once.

Even with close to ten werewolves in the large barn during the meeting, the hunters were knowledgeable enough to sneak close without being detected and they destroyed the building.

Bullet holes tore through the walls, while fire and smoke eventually forced them out. Most were dead before they got to the exit.

Chris had been able to drag the last three living werewolves with him into the main house on the abandoned farm grounds and that was when he called Scott.

In the eight hours Chris waited for his backup, he and the one surviving alpha, Gabriel, tried to take care of the two betas. Each were from one of the two packs so while the alpha and his own beta, Cal, were able to comfort each other by huddling close, giving as much warmth as they could, the other beta, Sandy, had on her own. She sobbed into her crossed arms as she held her knees close. She had lost her Alpha and the hole left behind by the missing bond shattered her.

Monroe taunted them and regularly tried to force her way into the house. Though all four were wounded, they managed to come together to hold their own throughout the night and barricaded all doors and windows.

A second fire was never lit, and Chris suspected she wanted to personally kill them rather than have smoke inhalation be the end of them. That is not to say other tactics were not used to get them to come running out.

Gunshots constantly filled the air as they tried to guess where they hid in the building. Shouts by some of the grunts were even thrown out, insulting them to end their suffering themselves. The hunters tired themselves out eventually when there was finally silence outside. The alpha told Chris that they were still out there based on their heartbeats, just quiet and most likely saving their energy for daylight to break.

They waited out most of the night when Chris finally concluded they would need to do something, even if Scott was not there, if they wanted to survive the night. They checked each exit when they decided to leave through the front as it was more advantageous due to the less amount of heartbeats on that side of the building. Unfortunately, they were spotted quickly when a hunter stepped around a parked van that was partially blocked by a tree and as they ran for cover around the corner of the building. That was when Scott finally arrived.

.

.

With another alpha there to help, Gabriel found it in himself to fight to his fullest so that he could live through the night. By encouraging the betas, all five were in it together to make it out of the battle alive.

The two alphas decided to run ahead towards the parked van when there was a pause in the shooting towards them. Scott knocked most unconscious with a swift punch to the head, while Gabriel would swipe at their faces. Chris followed them out, couched as he held a rifle out in front of him. The betas fell in line behind, trying to stay as small a target as possible, only attacking if a hunter got too close.

The small group left quite the dent in the manpower that was in front of them. Some of the lesser hunters were even backing up and moving to the side when they came face to face with two sets of raging scarlet eyes. They either made a run for it or were soon knocked out by one of them. Soon, most of the hunters were either on the ground or leaving to live another day.

The small group eventually reached the black vehicle, sliding behind it for protection as they were once again being heavily fired at by the reaming hunters. Scott eventually chanced a peek through the window to the other side to see Monroe herself aiming a small handgun in their direction as she slowly advanced, hidden behind two large men that held two equally large guns.

Letting out a low growl, Scott’s brow furrowed as he looked behind him to make sure everyone had caught up. He then stood abruptly and left the safety of the van, trusting Chris and Gabriel to cover him, and came around car to stand in front of the three hunters.

“Monroe.” Scott raised his hands to his shoulders in a gesture of peace.

“McCall.” Came her calm reply, lowering her gun slightly so that she could see his face better. The other two men seemed to raise their own guns even higher towards Scott. “How’s Beacon been treating you?” She asked in a mocking tone.

“Why are you doing this?” Another growl came from his throat, ignoring her question.

“Oh Scott,” She gave a smirk, her eyes narrowing in challenge, “I’m only getting rid of some vermin. Think of me as an exterminator if you will.”

“No! You’re a murderer. These are people,” he paused, sweeping his arm behind him, gesturing to the terrified werewolves that were peeking over the van. “People who have lives to live. You’re killing them when you don’t even know if they have ever done anything bad in their entire lives.”

“They turned bad the moment that took the bite. Those _things_ over there are not humans.” Monroe’s voice had turned from monotone to forceful. Her eyes scrunched in fury are she raised her gun aiming it right at Scotts head.

Keeping his arms raised, Scott tried once more to reason with her.

“Please, you don’t need to kill these people. If they’ve done wrong, I’ll take care of it. Just let all of us go. Please.”

Giving a quiet sigh, a small smile grew on her lips, “No.”

With that, she fired right at Scott’s head.

Quickly ducking, the bullet ricocheted off the van and a shout came from behind it. Scott was not sure it was from the shock or if someone got hit. Either way, it angered Scott and he turned from negotiator to fighter in a matter of seconds as his eyes bled once more to red. His nails grew to claws as he stood back up and faced Monroe.

“You had your chance to let us leave peacefully. Now we’re going to leave no matter what.”

A gunshot flew past from over Scott’s shoulder, hitting one of the beefy hunters in the arm. He went down with a shout, dropping his weapon in favor of clutching his bleeding appendage.

Scott ran forward while he heard footsteps quickly meeting up with him. He turned to see Gabriel and they both gave a nod to each other. He got to Monroe before she could shoot anyone else and grabbed her wrist, turning the gun upward as another shot rang out.

Gabriel had slammed his upper body into the remaining hunter, forcing both down to the ground. A bullet had left the hunters gun before they hit the dirt and Gabriel took a wound to his upper thigh. He gave a loud howl of pain even as he continued to pin the hunter underneath him with all his weight.

Chris and the two betas ran out from behind the van and split off, with the ex-hunter running towards Scott and the betas towards Gabriel.

With his hand tightly holding Monroe’s wrist, Scott pushed his face right into hers, “Looks like you’re the one outnumbered now. Maybe you should be the one that leaves before _you_ get hurt.”

She continued to struggle, never taking her eyes off Scott. Her determination slowly turned to worry as she acknowledged what he said as well as feeling how strong of a grip he had on her. She glanced over his shoulder to see Chris staring her down as well, facing a gun towards her. Further behind them, she saw her manpower down for the count.

Then a loud shout came from Gabriel and the hunter underneath him. Scott turned to see that Gabriel’s beta had raced up to him as soon as his thigh had been hit. Completely wolfed out, Cal gave his own roar before lashing out at the hunter.

Gabriel had rolled off the man, focused on his own injury and trusting Cal to finish what he started. The bullet had nicked an artery and he pressed both of his hands over the wound, trying to stop the bleeding. Sandy had knelt at Gabriel’s side, squeezing her hands above the wound trying to stop blood flow.

The male beta continued to fight the struggling hunter and he gave another shout that distracted Scott. His hand went slightly lax as his focus changed and that was all Monroe needed.

Ripping her wrist out of his hold, she dashed off to the hunter that previously had his arm shot. Quickly pulling his good arm over her shoulder she headed towards the nearest car leaving all the unconscious hunters scattered around the grounds to fend for themselves should they ever wake up.

Scott felt her leave his grip, but being more concerned with the downed alpha, he let her escape him once more and ran over to Gabriel. Chris, knowing Scott’s habit of letting people live, lowered his gun and followed him.

The two eventually got close enough to see that Cal in his rage had killed the hunter. The man’s face and chest were littered in deep scratches. With his task done, Cal had crouched so that he too could help with leg the wound. Even with four hands pressing down and two more squeezing higher up on the leg, the blood was coming out faster than the aged alphas powers were healing it. Face turning paler every second, Gabriel finally passed out into his betas arms.

“Here, let me.” Chris asked as he tried to check over the wound. “I know a bit about taking care of injuries.”

Cal gave a warning growl before Scott interrupted, “Don’t worry, I trust him. I know you’re just looking out for your alpha, but remember, Chris was the one that wanted the meeting in the first place. He won’t hurt you guys.”

.

.

Scott, Cal, and Sandy were able to lift him up after Chris put on a makeshift tourniquet using his torn shirt sleeve. They brought him back into the farm house and sat him down on a couch that they pulled down from their barricade.

With nothing surrounding the old barn, the fire was able to soon die out on its own, leaving the half-waxed moon to be the only light to illuminate through the windows. Knowing that the night sky blocked most of the smoke, Chris told the group there was no reason for them to leave anytime soon. Because they were outside of city limits, where there were not many people, there probably would not be any firemen or police called anytime soon.

Chris left to gather a portable light source along with a medical pouch from his car and was soon able to retrieve the bullet from Gabriel’s thigh, allowing the werewolf to finally begin healing.

Everyone eventually pulled down their own piece of furniture, resting while Gabriel slept. Half an hour later, the older man woke up feeling better already. Even with supernatural healing, the loss of a lot of blood in the span of a few minutes would be hard on anyone.

“Thank you, Alpha McCall,” Gabriel groaned as he slowly pushed himself up to lean against the back of the couch, “for coming to our aid.”

“You’re welcome.” Scott gave a smile as he saw his fellow alpha looking stronger by the minute. “I just wish that I could have done more,” he continued with the smile falling away, “to help both your packs survive something this horrible. I’m sorry.” The lighting from Chris’s lamp seemed to amplify his sadness as shadows showed off his creased eyebrows and the lowered corners of his mouth.

Gabriel gave a small nod. “I too am sorry for the loss of so many, however you are wrong on one thing. Both me and the other Alpha had only brought four betas to this meeting. Our packs hold more that did not come.”

“Well is there any way I can help now?” Scott turned from Gabriel and Cal to find Sandy. The other two wolves had each other to comfort while she sat alone on an armchair. “Is your pack close by or do we need to find someway to contact them?”

Sandy studied the alpha with blank eyes before she lifted her head from her knees. “No, they’re all back home in Tucson. I’m sure they are headed this way though,” she paused as her voice cracked and she wiped a few tears from her eyes with her wrist, “ever since they felt our Alpha Tina die.”

Scott gave a soft sigh as he gave a nod in understanding. The small group fell into silence as they mourned for the loss of the seven werewolves.

“What about you, Gabriel?”

“The same as Sandy I suppose. I told them to stay home but even as their alpha, I’m sure they will eventually disobey my order and come no matter what. Losing one pack member is hard enough, but to feel the loss of three members that were only going to a meeting is bound to cause them to head this way.”

Even with the knowledge that both packs would be on their way to help bring the survivors home, both Scott and Chris decided to stay to make sure no other hunters would try to come back.

They all sat on their own couches and chairs before they all began to drift off, exhausted after the adrenaline had left their systems.

Another hour or two passed before they heard cars pulling onto the gravel surrounding the property. Morning light had finally begun to streak in through the boarded windows as Chris and Scott headed to the front door.

Scott opened the door to see several cars parked and people scrambling from each one trying to reach them in record time.

The first to reach him however, looked far from happy. He looked to be Derek’s age only shorter. What he lacked in height though, he made up for in muscle as he quickly fisted bunches of Scott’s shirt into his hands. Scott was able to lift his arms to show he was not a threat even though he wanted nothing more than to show this beta not to manhandle an alpha.

“Where the _hell_ is my pack?!”

Gabriel hurried to stand as he heard the voice, “Mike,” he growled, “you better let him go right now. He helped us. Sorry McCall, Mike here has a bit of a temper that even I can struggle to rein in.”

Mike had slid his angry eyes from Scott to Gabriel and back again before he gave a quite snarl and dropped his hands and stepped back.

“Don’t worry about it. I have one myself.” Scott gave a fond look on his face as he thought of his first beta.

The rest had gathered around by then to witness Mike let go of the stranger. Each face held a spectrum of emotions that ran from fear to anger and then to relief after seeing the survivors peeking through the doorway behind Scott.

Everyone eventually piled back into the old house.

Sandy’s pack had swarmed her with open arms and tears running.

Gabriel’s pack had each ran to their alpha to rub foreheads against his own before heading over to give Cal an equal treatment.

Once everyone had settled down once more, Gabriel told the story of events that had happened. Fear and anger turned to awe and pride as they heard how the five had fought off all the hunters and were even able to scare Monroe away.

The two packs then told their own story of how they each felt bonds breaking, signaling the deaths of their family.

Gabriel’s betas had obeyed his order for the first few hours. But it soon got too much for them to sit around and worry, that they soon headed out. They had been smart enough to force the teens to stay behind as babysitters for the younger members, thus no one under the age of eighteen had come along.

Sandy’s pack had done basically the same thing, only they left as soon as they felt the death of their alpha. Tina’s eldest, Gregory, had quickly inherited the alpha status and had made his first decision as leader to head out as soon as possible.

Both packs had coincidentally arrived near each other as soon as they arrived in Flagstaff and they followed each other as they made it to the abandoned farm.

.

.

During the happy reunion, Chris and Scott had stood to the side, not wanting to break the happy bubble. Scott wanted to head out now that the fighting was over, but Chris held him back for a moment as he cleared his throat to gain everyone’s attention.

“I just wanted to say that I am sorry. I’m sorry that you were attacked during a meeting that I held. I had wanted to warn you all about a hunter named Monroe and it was with horrible irony that she attacked you while the meeting was going on.” He gave a look as though he wanted to say more, but chose not to.

“I understand that you must feel as though this is all your fault.” Gabriel walked over to stand in front of Chris, reaching to place his hand on Chris’s shoulder. “But it was not. I know a bit about your past – that you are an ex-hunter – but I can see you are trying to make up for some of the more bad things you have done. You were only trying to help warn us. I am sad that I lost members of my pack and my allies pack as well, but I do not blame you. I thank you for staying to help us survive through the ordeal.”

Chris gave a small, yet meaningful smile to the older alpha in thanks.

Gabriel then walked over to Scott, giving him a once over from head to foot.

“As for you, Alpha McCall, I am in debt to you.”

Scott’s eyes widened as he shook his head, about to deny that a debt was needed, but Gabriel interrupted him with a raised hand in a sign of silence.

“I can see that you don’t want one owed, but that is how I feel. Between myself and Tina, we should have been able to take care of the two packs should anything like this have happened. With her untimely demise however, it fell onto me to take care of any survivors from either pack. Yet, Chris believed in you so much, another alpha werewolf, that he wanted you as backup. And you came. That says a lot about your character that you helped when you knew none of us except Chis and ended up saving us. I _want_ to do this, so you best let your elder do what he wants,” he finished his speech with a teasing grin.

Gabriel then held out his hand, waiting for Scott to follow his lead. Grasping his forearm to show what he wanted Scott to do, the young man mimicked the gesture. Gabriel clasped his hand tight and felt Scott do the same to him.

“With this, I, Alpha Gabriel Chavez make a debt to Alpha Scott McCall that I will give aid should he ask for it. That I will offer shelter should he seek it. And that I will ally myself with him now and forever should he request if of me.”

Scott and everyone else in the room stood in shock at what had just happened.

“You want me as an ally?” Scott said in a slightly raised voice.

“But he’s just a kid!” Mike had stepped forward. “You don’t really want to give a debt to kid, right Gabriel?”

“Why, yes I do Mike.” Gabriel turned to his beta with an eyebrow raised, asking the beta what he thought he was doing. “This _kid_ , in case you forgot, is an alpha. I don’t care if he was ten years old, I would have done the same thing because he has something not a lot of other alphas out there have: guts and the need to save people no matter who they are. I could see that in the little time I have spent with him. So why don’t you keep quiet, you damned pup, and let your alpha do what he believes is best.”

Gabriel had kept the same tone throughout his speech, not raising his voice and yet it gave an incredible presence that everyone in the room was intimidated by. None more so than Mike who had lowered his head during the speech and exposed his neck in apology.

Throughout the speech, Scott stood there not knowing how to respond. He was flattered that this wise man treated Scott like an equal. Hearing the compliment about himself cleared his head and he was able to give his reply.

“Wow, uh, thank you, um, Alpha Gabriel.” His face shown with confusion as he did not know how formal he should speak but he saw the other man give a smile and nod of his head to continue.

“Even though you have known me for no more than a day, I appreciate you wanting me as an ally even though I _am_ young and haven’t been an alpha all that long. I can see you’re a good man too and would like to be an ally to you as well. Um, if you truly want me, I will happily accept you offer.”

.

.

With that, Scott and Chris were able to say their goodbyes and head back to California. A lot was accomplished in the few hours that the two men were Arizona. Even as they neared home, Scott could not get over the fact that he gained more allies for his family should they ever need help and protection.

Gregory, the newly made alpha, had come up to Scott after Gabriel had stepped aside. He gave his own gratitude and was honest as he told Scott he did not feel that an alliance was the best thing to do at the current moment. He explained that because he was newly “promoted” he wanted to establish where his pack stood before he did anything important like a new alliance.

Scott understood completely and gave his condolences alongside well wishes in the hope that his pack would heal and give the time needed to properly mourn.

When they finally reached Beacon Hills, it was close to sundown. Both men went their separate ways with Scott headed home to his apartment while Chris went home to Melissa. That was something Scott still could not completely wrap his head around – that his mother and Chris were dating.

They had been trying it out for close to two months now and Scott could see how happy his mom was with the peppered haired man by her side.

While he tried to come home often as he could, Chris still felt it to be his duty to help and protect those that could no protect themselves. He did not travel further than two states away at a time, but he still left regularly to keep watch over Monroe and other hunters that would go after anything that smelt even faintly supernatural. Yet, Melissa was completely understanding and happy with the time that she did get to spend with him.

When Scott finally reached his apartment, he was quick to pull of his clothes that reeked of smoke and sweat. He took his time in the shower and as he stepped out, he hit with a wall of exhaustion. He wanted to sleep for the next five years, he was so tired. His stomach disagreed and that was when Scott realized he had not eaten since his lunch break the day before.

Not wasting time with cooking, he made a bowl of cereal which he inhaled before he jumped onto his bed and was out before his head hit the pillow.

**End Chapter 1**


	2. There For You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was brought to my attention that I might not have been quite clear when it came to where people are since everyone will be alive. If people died in the show (like Allison for example) they were only seriously injured and ended up moving away for one reason or another. This way, the show will run the same with all the characters that were in each season. If people left in the show (like Jackson for example) they still did and are wherever they were supposed to go.
> 
> Basically, if someone was not mentioned in the first chapter, they are not currently in Beacon Hills.

**Posted January 2, 2018 … Revised June 25, 2018**

**Inspired Song:[MitiS – Moments](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R19uQyfwqhg)**

.

.

The next morning, Scott woke to the tune of his alarm along with the regular feeling of weight along his left side. Slowly turning his head, he saw Malia had pressed her face into his shoulder, both arms and legs secured around him. She had not been in when he came home and must have snuck into bed when he was knocked out.

He was able to pull away from her as she simply awoke to grumbled about the loss of heat then turned to face the other direction as she fell back asleep.

Going through the regular motions of a weekday morning, Scott made a small breakfast for himself and soon headed out, ready to begin his hour-long commute to his morning classes. The drive usually seemed long with morning rush hour but today, Scott was able to spend his time with his thoughts.

What he did the day before still clung to him.

He had truly been worried for Chris when he had called. Then to learn that he was trapped along with injured werewolves, it was a big deal to him. He would have headed there no matter what anyone else would have said. He would have left in a heartbeat.

Then in the aftermath of yesterday's confrontation, he had felt it. It was what he felt every time he and his pack would save the town when he had been in high school.

Satisfaction.

The fulfilment he got when he realized he was able to use is powers to help save people was something that Scott loved. Derek was right about one thing – the bite  _was_  a gift. And Scott chose to use his gift to help and save those that could not do it themselves.

He was following the Argent's new code,  _we protect those who cannot protect themselves._

Scott once again turned his mind to his meeting with Monroe and what her presence could mean. It was bugging him that Chris held the meeting in the first place to discuss her. She was gathering hunters and was being more vicious recently with trying to get rid of everyone that was not "normal" in her eyes.

He felt as though he had an itch that he could not scratch.

Scott had been doing the saving thing for a few years now, but yesterday had felt like something different. Perhaps it was because he did not know most of the people he was saving. Perhaps it was because he had not done anything exciting in a while. Or, perhaps it was because Scott was an alpha, and for him that meant he protected anyone even if they were not part of his pack.

He eventually got to campus and attended his classes for the day. Afterwards, he arrived back home on time for him to take the evening shift at the clinic. It was an ordinary shift and once again, he closed for the night.

Arriving home, Scott was greeted to the sight of take out on the coffee table and his girlfriend leaning against the back of the couch, her head hanging over the top to look at him as he walked through the door. She had been watching a movie as she ate her fill. After a kiss in greeting, he was quick to join her on the sofa and they spent their night at home enjoying a movie marathon.

The rest of the week was spent in the same fashion.

Nothing lively crept upon Beacon Hills and the pack were able to live their regular lives. Everyone had their own routines that were only broken on Saturday nights when the small pack would gather together at Melissa's house for game night.

Throughout it all, Scott's itch seemed to grow stronger.

It was only while he was sitting in one of his lectures a couple days later, that it came to him.

He wanted to be like Chris Argent.

Scott wanted to travel across the country like the older man did and protect other supernaturals as much as he could. He loved saving people, and if he were honest with himself, it was bit selfish in the sense that Scott loved the thrill of running to the rescue in the face of crazed hunters.

Calling the man one evening, Scott told him that he wanted to go along with him the next time he planned to be gone for a short time. It worked in Scott's favor that it was during his spring break when Chris asked for help. He would not need to miss classes.

Deaton, understanding as always, allowed the young man to skip work for the week so he could meet other supernaturals around the west coast. He turned it against Scott though when he told the alpha it would be educational for him to meet and greet with the packs that lived nearby.

And Scott did just that.

He followed Chris on a short trip to Bakers Field, California where they came upon a few groups of omegas being rounded up. They did their thing and were soon able to take down the amateur hunters that had been trying to make a name for themselves.

They patched up the omegas and eventually let them go if they promised that they would not try to find any more trouble.

Other small problems that were easy to deal with came up as they traveled around the southern part of California and even came across another small pack like Scotts. They were mostly middle-aged woman, but their wits and claws were still sharp.

This trend happened for the rest of the spring semester. When Scott had the time, he would leave with Chris to watch over the surrounding land. He never came across Monroe herself, but he heard rumors.

Other unfortunate hunters, however, were not so lucky. Anyone who ended up involved with Scott McCall and Chris Argent likely wound up in the hospital.

As for the people that were saved, Scott found himself giving two people a choice. On the rare occasions Scott found someone he liked, he offered them a spot into his pack. Others that Scott liked were offered the chance to become an ally to him and his cause. He was surprised to see how much accepted saying that they had no desire to fight with anyone over anything. Most people were just trying to live and get by.

The two that Scott had given the offer to join his pack had both politely declined. One had refused due to the possibility that family could take her in while the other had said no because they already planned to be part of a different pack and had no want to leave them.

.

.

That summer, Scott finished his first year of college and the youngest of his pack were finally graduating from High School. The pack had gathered together to celebrate and towards the end of the party, Scott pulled each of the youngsters away one at a time to ask each of them the same question.

Did they want to stay home with the pack, or did they want to leave to try life on their own.

Corey and Mason were quick to say they wanted to attend college. They had planned to go together and talking it over, they decided to follow in Scott's footsteps and continue to live in Beacon Hills. The place was their home now but instead of traveling every day to campus however, they settled upon online courses.

As for Liam, he chose to not to go for any higher education. He believed that there were plenty of opportunities in life that did not require a piece of paper saying you took a lot of tests. He was happy where he was and had no plan to leave his pack and his alpha alone.

Hayden felt what a lot of fresh graduates tended to feel. Growing up, she constantly heard how people needed a degree to get anywhere good in life, but she did not know what she could possibly go for. She had just gone through twelve years of schooling and all she wanted was a break.

Following Lydia's lead, she decided to take a year off and see where she would stand in a years' time.

And like her fellow beta's, Hayden chose to stay. With Liam by her side, she felt happy and like she belonged. Scott had also saved her, and she would follow his lead where ever it may take her.

Scott found inspiration in Mason when he spoke of online courses. Now that he was going around to various cities and towns with Chris, Scott thought perhaps web-based courses would benefit him as well. With the extra time away from commute as well as not having to sit in hour long lectures, he could be spending it traveling and helping others.

Deaton was even able to put in a good word for Scott at the college so that he could put all his courses into the new plan. With the theoretical taken care of from the comfort of a computer, the practical could be done from Deaton's own clinic. For Scott, the only condition he would need to follow would be to be on campus for both his mid-term and final test for each semester.

That summer, Scott decided to take a longer trip around the country to extend his reach to those that were further away. He and Chris split ways then with the older man taking a break to spend more time with Melissa.

In his place, Malia chose to go.

The young couple planned for the destination to be Virginia so that they could surprise Stiles and Lydia. The plan was to travel the country through the northern states to eventually get to Virginia, then head home through the southern states, taking their time and meeting new people all along the way.

Scott and Malia were excited to spend the time together as well as anticipate who they would meet on their journey.

Liam, not so much.

Seeing as the trip might last a few weeks, it would be the longest time yet that the young beta would be placed in charge. He wanted to do good by Scott and not mess anything up. He was also worried about the possibility that some evil creature would attack while the two were away and Liam would be the one responsible should anything devastating happen.

Scott found it endearing that he was worried so much and tried not to tease him as he explained to the younger man that nothing bad would happen. He just needed to be more optimistic and trust himself to do right should anything happen while Scott was gone.

.

.

As soon as mid-July arrived, they headed out with the hope to escape the California heat and they made good time getting to Seattle, Washington after about twelve hours of non-stop driving, save a few breaks in between.

Arriving there around early evening, they were eager to sleep the rest of the day away after all the driving they had done.

The plan for the next day was to play tourist since they had promised each other that they would make time to have fun along the way. While the main objective of traveling was to meet and help people, they did not want the whole trip to evolve looking for danger and problems to solve.

When the two woke the next day, they made their plans over breakfast.

The first thing they did was find a tourist oriented looking store to pick up hats and T-shirts that had the state printed on the front with cheesy text on the back. They wore them for the rest of the day, making fun of themselves for looking like stereotypical tourists.

Malia made them go up in the Space Needle so that she could see how tall it was for herself. Neither were afraid of the buildings height, so they were happy to lean against all the available windows to look at the ground below.

They spent lunch at Pike Place Market, they went to a few of the art museums, and the couple even visited Woodland Park Zoo before the day was over. They enjoyed every minute they were out, and both were happy to spend it with each other.

And as promised, they were quick to turn serious when the next day, the help came to them.

The young couple had been walking through back alleys just listening in on conversations between the rough looking people that lived in the inner-city, hoping to pick up something interesting. Scott had raised his left arm to wrap it around Malia's shoulders when they heard someone behind them shout a, "Hey you!"

They turned around like the few others that were around them to see a man with a short red beard that looked to be in his early thirties. He was pointing at Scott's bicep that had been exposed from his sleeve when he had raised his arm, "Are you a McCall?"

Malia was quick to step forward to guard her boyfriend and alpha, giving a soft growl in warning.

"Did you say  _a_ McCall?" Scott asked, confused why the man said it that way.

"Yeah," the man furrowed his brow at Scott's question but still appeared eager as he pointed to Scott's tattoo, "You know,  _McCall_."

Scott sort of understood that the man was trying to talk about his pack without using the word in front of the regular people that were nearby.

"Uh, can go somewhere else to talk?" The older man asked when all he received was silence. He kept his hands exposed to show he was harmless, looking nervous at how aggressive Malia stood.

"Why would we do that. We don't know you," Malia answered, her eyes narrowed as she crossed her arms.

"True, but I'm outnumbered here. Two to one. I just want to talk about…ya know?"

Turning her head to look back at her boyfriend, Malia saw him look the stranger over before he agreed with a short nod of his head. The stranger led the two not far, just away from back alley to a small park where a few families were. He sat on one side of an old picnic table while the couple sat on the other side.

He was quick to start talking again when they all settled down, "I'm right, aren't I? You're part of the McCall pack? I knew I was right 'cus you didn't want to say the word 'pack' around those people too."

The alpha's eyes grew in surprise at the man's words. He then gave his head a small shake to clear his thoughts, "Hang on, how do you know that? I mean, yeah, you're right that I didn't want to talk around those people, but how do you know who I am?"

Confused eyes stared back at Scott. He then looked to Malia's own exposed arm, as though he expected her to have the two stripes marked into her skin as well.

"Well, I saw the mark on your arm. The McCall pack symbol."

"What?" Both Scott and Malia gave the response at the same time.

"What do you mean the McCall pack symbol? He's the only one that has that tattoo," Malia demanded to know as she slammed one arm on the table to get the man's attention.

He turned to her to reply, but Scott interrupted as he lifted his head back up, "First of all, it doesn't really symbolize my pack and second, how do you even know what it looks like?"

The confusion from all three seemed to hang in the air above them and continued to grow after each question was asked. The couple could not understand how Scott's tattoo of all things had suddenly become so famous while the bearded man did not know how these two did not understand how important the mark was.

"Wait a minute, that means that  _you're_  Scott McCall? You're not just a pack member?" The older man's expression turned from nervous to elated when he made the connection that the alpha of the pack was in front of him. "This is amazing! Can I shake your hand?" he asked as he leaned forward, extending his own arm across the table.

Malia gave her second growl to the man as she quickly grasped his wrist, stopping him from moving forward.

Scott started to tell Malia to let him go, but stopped when he realized he could use this to his advantage.

"Look," he said with a serious look in his eyes, "you probably don't want to hurt us, but we still have no answers here. Just tell us what we want to know, and then maybe I'll shake your hand."

"Right, yeah, sorry. It's just, how do you not know what your tattoo means?"

Malia released his wrist when she felt him relax his arm and he placed it back in his lap, "Dude, we don't know. That's why we asked you. We're just going in circles now with our questions."

"Well I don't know where to start. I mean, I just heard about the mark through the grape vine."

"What grape vine," Malia demanded, "That's what we're trying to ask here – just tell us everything you know. Pretend like we don't know anything because we really don't."

"Right, okay. Uh, well, you're famous. You're Scott freaking McCall, the guardian that's been going around saving everybody. What you're doing is amazing and it's gained some attention and people are loving you for doing what you're doing. You're a hero."

Scott and Malia had both raised their eyebrows as their mouths hung down. He knew that going around helping would have probably given him a reputation, but Scott did not think that others would appreciate what he was doing so much and so quickly too.

The man continued when he noticed that neither one was going to talk any time soon. "I guess when you were doing one of your, uh, missions or whatever, someone saw your arm. Must have just assumed that it was your pack mark since most werewolves only get inked up for something that important. Anyways, it was spread around that there was this guy that was saving werewolves and he had that tattoo," He finished with a shrug of his shoulders.

Scott could not believe it but the longer he thought about it, he could.

It would make sense that people would start noticing what he did, just look at Monroe and her reputation after almost a whole a year of moving around the world. He had only been thinking about doing what he felt was right and not about any notoriety he might have gained.

"So, what, people just know my name now? What else are they saying?"

"Well, all I know is that someone saw your mark, and it got spread around a bit. Then you did something else and another person happened to see your arm too. I guess more and more people just started connecting the dots when soon enough, people started guessing where you might show up next. You've been around the south-west states, though you've only been noticed since about April, so no one really knew for sure if you would stay in that region forever. And here you are."

"And here I am," Scott said with a bit of a dazed look as he leaned forward to rest his elbows upon the table and cup his forehead.

Malia placed her hand on his shoulder and squeezed a bit to comfort him. Letting him sit and think over all the information that he was dumped with, she thought it best to ask a few more questions. "What's your name anyways? Don't think we got it."

"Oh! Sorry, it's Harry. Actually, it's Harrison Williams but everyone just calls me Harry. Guess I should have done that from the beginning."

"Well I figure you already know this guy," she said with a pointed thumb, "and I'm Malia. His girlfriend."

"Really? That's cool. So, you're in his pack, right? How many of you are there? I heard from one rumor that there are like, fifty of you."

She gave a breathy chuckle in response, "No, more like eight."

"Wow, I definitely thought there would be more of you guys with how much he goes around saving people and having them join his pack."

Scott finally looked back up to what Harry had said. "No, I don't do that. I only ever asked two people if they wanted to join. I don't go around asking people just because I want more power. I take it seriously when I say my pack is my family. I won't just ask people to join when I know nothing about them and can't trust them."

"Oh," Harry said softly. His eyes seemed to dim a bit at what he had just learned as his shoulders curved in just slightly. Neither was able to catch it for as quick as Harry had done it, he had shaken it off and sat up straighter with a determined look on his face.

"Guess I should probably explain why I called you out like that in the alley, huh?"

"Yeah that would be nice," came Malia's blunt tone.

"Well, I kind of need some assistance with someone and I'm lucky that I was around and noticed your arm. You know how famous you are now and I was hoping you would be able to help."

The couple shared a look with each other. This was precisely the type of thing they were looking for when they decided to take this trip. Malia gave a smile to Scott in acceptance, which he returned.

"Of course, we'll help. Can you be more specific about what you need though?"

Harry's eyes grew large, "Thank you so much! You've no idea how important this is to me." He tried to reach over again to grasp Scott's hand and this time, Malia let him as Scott leaned forward to meet half-way and clasped his hand.

"So, there's this hunter, obviously, and I just want help taking her down. There is a treaty here with the local werewolves and this group of hunters. She's still a part of the hunter group, but she's broken the biggest rule, and nothing is being done about it. Well, I mean that some other wolves and I know what she's done but she lied about it to the hunters and of course they believe one of their own."

"What can we do then?"

"I just want them to see her for what she really is. I won't stand for what she's done and just let her continue ignoring the treaty she signed like nothing is wrong."

"What did she do?"

"She killed three werewolves when the agreement we have says no one can kill anyone."

"And none of the other hunters suspect one of their own did it?"

"Yeah, they were all ruled 'undetermined' meaning they don't know if they were killed or if it was an accident," Harry's eyes flashed gold for a moment in his anger. He had fisted his hands as he talked and folded them so much, he started to bleed from his palms. The pain calmed him enough to relax his hands and return his eyes to their deep blue color. "Two of them were around your age and the other was only twelve."

"My condolences," was all Scott was able to say, both him and Malia looking at Harry with sympathy.

Giving a deep sigh to collect himself, Harry looked at each of them with a small, yet sincere smile, "Thank you."

"So, I guess we should go find this hunter, right? Or would it be better to talk to the leader of the group and see what they have to say?"

"Well, with you, maybe we should go to the leader. Maybe she'll listen to what you have to say."

.

.

They were quick to leave the park and follow Harry as he led them to the busier part of downtown Seattle. The couple were surprised to find Harry head into a rather high-class apartment building and up to the front desk where a young man was sitting alone at a large counter. He looked up as Harry's shadow fell upon him.

He gave a grin as he recognized who stood before him, "Hey Harry, going up to Hannah?"

"Hi Gavin," he said with a strained smile, "Yeah, I brought these two with me to meet her. That's okay, right?"

Gavin leaned over Harry's tall frame to look at the two and barely spared them a glance before he faced Harry again, "It's okay. Just need you to do the usual, you know the drill."

Gavin bent over to open a filing cabinet and took out a sheet of paper. Scott could see that it was a guest sign in sheet like the one already on the counter, only instead of a name signed in ink, this one held a few thumb prints signed in blood.

As if he did this every day, Harry pricked his thumb with a claw and rubbed it with his index finger to get it to cover the entire thumb, and stamped the paper.

He then slid it over to Scott, "Sorry, but do you mind? It was part of the treaty that if you want to see the leader of the local hunters, you need this to prove you were here and will not fight while in the building."

Scott was both impressed and disturbed. They sure had it all planned out.

As he followed Harry's lead, Scott understood that it was both a security thing as well as leverage. If someone were to sign this and then go in there killing someone and escape, these hunters would not need to stay below ground to track the killer. They could go the legal route and contact authorities and give them the DNA and finger print of the last person who went up there.

After Malia's turn, they stepped into the elevators and heard Gavin calling someone, letting whoever was on the other line know that the three were coming up. As they ascended, Scott noticed that they were headed for the top floor of the building – the penthouse.

The elevator opened to a large hallway with only two double doors on either side of the hall. To the right, the three were greeted to the sight of a woman sitting behind an elegant wooden desk. She looked up as the doors opened and found Harry as she too recognized him.

"Harry," came her smooth, mature voice, "I almost thought I wouldn't get to see your lovely face today. And you've brought friends. I hope they're as pleasant to be around as you are."

Scott was not able to tell if she was being serious or not.

"Yeah, yeah. Just let us in to see Hannah. I'm busy," he said as he walked past her to the double doors she sat in front of. He placed his hand on the door that held no handle and turned to look at the woman, waiting for her to press the button to let him in.

"Aren't you always?" She said in reply as she did not turn around when Harry walked past and simply reached over her desk to press the buzzer, giving them entrance.

When they stepped inside, the young couple were greeted to the sight of a spacious living room that was surrounded by large windows that framed the life of Seattle. The overcast sky gave the room a small bit of natural light that poured into the room.

The two were on Harry's heels as he moved passed the living room and further into the penthouse.

They went down a short hallway and stopped in front of a deep brown door.

Harry gave a few sturdy knocks and the door was opened to show it was a spacious office. A rather large man with weapons hanging on either side of his hips opened the door for them. He stepped aside to let them in and then guarded the door once more after he closed it, crossing his arms as he announced that Harry had come in.

Another elegant desk sat towards the back of the office with a high-backed chair turned away from them.

From the chair came a coarse, yet distinctly feminine voice. "Harry, you come here every day with the same story, and I always turn you away with the same story. I don't have the time to do this today, so why don't –"

She stopped when she turned to face forward and saw that she her guest had brought friends.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know that Harry brought new people with them. How may I help you?"

"Don't worry, it's not more business deals," Harry said as he walked up to the desk while Scott and Malia moved further into the room, "I brought these guys to you for my own reasons. They want to help prove Julie killed my pack."

Scott was stunned at the blunt confession. He could tell that Harry seemed close to the dead werewolves, but he had not thought they had been pack. Though, Scott admitted to himself that it now seemed logical given how passionate Harry was about finding the hunter that killed them.

Hannah gave a large sigh as she closed her eyes after Harry's announcement.

She opened them after a few deep breaths to look into his eyes, "Harry. As I just said, I don't have the time to do this today. You come here day after day, trying to prove to me that Julie, one of my top hunters, decided to disobey my treaty and kill for no reason. I know you're upset and want to find answers to the tragedy that happened, but I assure you, she did not do it."

Malia took the moment to step forward to stand next to Harry and stare down the seated woman.

"Look lady, we came with Harry because he told us that three werewolves were killed. I'm sure I heard right when he told us that you're the big boss hunter here, right? Then I guess you know all about werewolves and their skills. Like maybe how we can tell if people are lying? Well he told us the story, and I never heard his heart skip."

She folded her arms in confidence. Turning to Scott, she raised her eyebrows questioning why he had not walked over yet or why he had not spoken up. She tilted her head, telling him to come over as she turned back to Hannah, "And I bet Scott heard the same thing. So what do you say to that?"

Throughout Malia's speech, Hannah's face had turned from exasperated to unimpressed, her mouth down turned as her eyes began to lid. She placed her elbows on the desk, resting her chin atop her crossed fingers.

"I say that a distraught man lost people he loved in a tragic accident, and in the following hours, after it was determined that it was not known how they died, a grieving man simply wanted there to be an easy answer. So, when he happened to see one of my hunters nearby, his mind started to fill in a story. He contrived a tale about one of my hunters breaking my treaty and killing for no reason."

The more she talked, the more irritated Hannah seemed to be as she had to explain herself in her own home. "Of course, you didn't hear his heart stutter," she continued, "because he believes what he says, even if the rest of us know it to be false."

Malia and Hannah glared at each other, both woman having similar bold personalities, causing them clash.

Scott was able to intervene before either did something, "Look, like Harry said, he thought it would be a good idea to bring us to you. He thought we could help him figure out what happened to his packmates, whether it was by one of your hunters, or if it really was an accident."

Harry sharply turned to Scott. He looked angry that Scott would agree with anything Hannah had to say.

"I'm sorry Harry, but that's what I'm going to do. I know that's probably not what you want to hear, but I will do what I can to find the  _real_  reason those three died. I'm not going to only go after the proof that you want to look for."

Hannah looked impressed by what he said as she leaned forward, looking the young man over.

"What did you say your name was?"

"Scott McCall."

"McCall?" Her surprise matched that of Harry's when the couple had met him. Hannah looked to Harry, silently asking if he was who he said he was. He gave a nod in answer.

"Wow, the great Scott McCall came all the way to Washington to play detective to a year-old case." Her tone was surprisingly genuine rather than sarcastic. She held a look that said she was impressed that a werewolf from outside of their community wanted to help a man that was not even part of his pack.

"Yeah, well, that's what my girlfriend and I do. We planned this trip to go around the states and see if we could give a hand to those that might need one."

Hannah leaned back in her chair, resting her arms on the armrests. She held a small smile as she looked between the three people that stood before her.

"Well then Scott, I welcome you to Seattle and wish you the best in finding the truth."

Malia scrunched her nose in confusion, "You don't have anything more to tell us? Like maybe where to look in this city?"

"Sorry, but no. I guess you could start where they died, but besides that, I don't know what to tell you. Why else do you think is was ruled an undetermined? The only odd thing about each of them was that they were found in the woods. None of them have cuts, bruises, broken bones, or a bump on the head. There's been no cameras, no witnesses, and no evidence."

Scott and Malia traded a look. It seemed like this just got even more interesting. Now, the couple felt even more of a need to find out what happened.

"Well then, thanks for your time." Scott gave a wave to the woman behind the desk and grabbed Malia's hand as they walked back to the door. The large hunter opened the door for them and followed the three to the elevator to make sure they left as promised.

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When they stepped out onto the sidewalk in front of the building, Scott wanted to have Harry to take them to where the werewolves were found right away but hesitated when he remembered that they had been part of his pack. He did not want to force the man to come with them only for him to relive something painful.

Scott finally worked up his nerve and asked Harry where the location of the three had been found in the woods, letting him know that he did not need to come along with if he did not want to.

Harry told him that he did feel bad about going but was determined to find the justice he had been craving for almost an entire year, thus, he wanted to tag along.

The three eventually found themselves east of Seattle, in the middle of the dense woods that were near a small state park.

Harry led the younger werewolves around a bit before he eventually came to a stop at a large, overturned tree. Almost all the bark was overgrown with moss and the dirt surrounding it was tough, as though a lot of foot traffic had recently been through the area, compacting the dirt.

He quietly told them that the body of the twelve-year-old had been placed to lean against the tree.

As the couple began to look around the area, Harry backed away from the scene, not wanting to be directly where their body had been found. Scott chanced a glance at the older man as he walked around.

He stood with his back completely straight and his hands bunched into fists at his side. Harry had his face bent forward to hide his eyes, though his intention was lost as Scott could see his silent tears drip from his face to the damp earth. His scent also assaulted Scott's nose and he was sure Malia caught it too. Neither of them dared to mention it and let the man be.

Scott continued to look around the area, hoping that anything might seem odd and out of place.

Malia tried to catch the lingering smell of anything. After a whole year of weather and rain, of course the scent of the dead was gone, but she hoped to find any type of clue, or better yet, the scent of the killer, thinking they might have come back to the area.

Neither had any luck after searching around for close to an hour. Harry sadly accepted that, and told them about the location of the second person. It was in the woods as well, just on the other side of the clearing where they had arrived.

Heading back out of the woods the way they came, the three were near the tree line when Malia stopped, holding out both her arms to stop the men on either side of her from taking another step. She kept quiet as the tilted her head to the side, letting her right ear rise higher.

Hearing what she was looking for, Malia turned her head in the direction of the sound.

Scott and Harry had tried listening in when she stopped them, and they heard it was well.

The constant rain in Washington made the leaves damp, thus they would not give a crunch sound easily letting one know that someone was walking upon them. However, for those with supernatural hearing, the sound of footsteps was easy to pick up regardless of the state of the fallen leaves. Instead, the soaked leaves and the mud underneath gave a distinct squashing sound as a person walked across them.

Scott backed up into the trees to hide himself. The other two followed his lead when they realized what he was doing.

A few moments passed with no sight of the person. The rainfall made it hard to both see and smell whoever was out there. Impatient, Malia finally crept through the foliage that lined the entrance to the wood, still determined to remain hidden from whoever was out there.

She spotted the back of a person as they knelt to the ground. Malia was not able to see their figure nor what they were doing. She was able to keep quiet though when they stood abruptly and continued further in-between the trees.

Certain they had moved along and would not return, Malia came out from her hiding place to see what the person had done. She did not know what she was looking at and was thankful she would not have to ask aloud for Scott and Harry had walked over to examine as well.

The bearded man gave a sound of surprise as he slightly bent over. He did not move too close, and advised the other two to step back as he explained.

It was a trap used to catch small rodents. Only this one was modified to look that way to hide its true purpose. Instead, it was used to track supernaturals. If one were to get too close, it would release a cocktail of herbs and other ingredients to immobilize anything that was affected by any of the substances. It could also possibly alert the owner that it was triggered.

With their suspicions slightly raised, they tailed the person back into the woods.

They kept their distance throughout the long walk and were surprised to wind up back at the overturned tree. They continued to stay a good distance away, hidden behind a few of the larger tree trunks in the area.

The person never removed their coat and hat, standing with their back to the three werewolves. They stood close to the mossy log, almost exactly where the body had been found. A gloved hand eventually reached out to run fingers across the log, leaving a trail through the moss exposing the bark.

A sigh eventually reached the wolves ears and to Scott, it sounded feminine. They eventually moved away from the tree and continued deeper into the woods.

Once again, they followed the figure who placed a second herb trap along the path, as though making sure they were not being followed.

They stayed even farther away from the figure when Harry pulled them to a stop. He explained that the figure was headed in the direction of the location of where second body had been found. His eyes shown with determination which was reflected in the younger two, they all realized this was a connection.

A similar thing happened in the clearing where the second body had been found. The figure stood nearby and never did anything but stand still. Once again, they walked away, leaving a third trap as they walked and eventually came upon the sight where the third body had been found.

The figure continued to stand still when Harry could not take it anymore. He did not confront the figure but instead moved around the perimeter of the small clearing, hoping to catch a glimpse of a face.

He eventually saw a gloved hand raise to sweep a few escaped strands of pale hair back into their hat. His eyes widened at the familiarity, and his suspicions were confirmed when he continued to move around and finally saw a face.

It was a hunter.

It was the killer.

It was Julie Spring.

Harry's eyes had widened when he saw who it was as she had always been his suspect. He saw her near the sights before, but never this close and never this consistent.

For him, this was enough evidence, but he knew he still needed more to prove it to Hannah, so he kept quiet. He did not step out and confront Julie. Instead, he retreated to Scott and Malia. He saw their curious looks as he passed but said nothing as he traveled back out of the woods, wanting to put as much distance between himself and Julie as possible before he decided to turn back and attack her.

**End Chapter 2**


	3. Keep Me Going

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had upped the rating from Teen to Mature since I wrote a bit about death, some violence, and the killers mental health since I had not been sure if I got too descriptive or not. But after some considerations and comparing to other stories I have read on this site, I went back down to Teen.
> 
> If you are concerned and feel that you may not want to read what made the rating change be considered, please check out the disclaimer below.

**Posted January 18, 2018 … Revised June 26, 2018**

**Inspired Song:[Jorge Mendez – Cold](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8sN_En5DII&t=168s)**

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**Disclaimer:**

This chapter holds a section that goes to the POV of the killer. Their mindset can seem a bit twisted to some along with implying the state of their mental health. If you feel this might make you uncomfortable, you might want to consider skipping when you encounter **[ . . . ]**  and resume when you see  **[ . . . ]**  again. It is a considerable chunk of the chapter, but I'm just being careful here.

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No one spoke as they drove back into the city. The day had finally run out and night life was beginning to illuminate the streets. Scott eventually spoke up to ask Harry where they could drop him off. It was not too late, only nearing ten o'clock, but the young couple felt tired after meeting with Harry and Hannah, as well as adventuring into the woods trying to find clues to a killer.

Harry directed them to drop him off at a rather run-down apartment building close to where they had first met the man. Scott was reluctant to leave him there but seeing as they only knew each other for a day, he did not feel like it was his place to offer the man another place to sleep for the night.

The two exchanged numbers with Scott promising they would stay in town and help him no matter how long it would take.

It was the next morning when Scott awoke to a call from Harry. As he answered, Scott found it was close to nine in the morning – a decent enough time to be up.

Harry decided to finally tell him about the person in the woods from the day before. He admitted to seeing Julie and his decision to not make a move. When Scott had dropped him off at his house, he had been restless and knew he would not be able to sleep.

Instead, Harry had decided to walk around the city, staying awake through both the stimulation of Seattle night life and thoughts about Julie Spring. Harry finished the call explaining that throughout the night, he had been trailing Julie and wanted them to meet up, so they could talk about his findings.

They gathered at a small café for breakfast.

Scott was not surprised to see Harry was wearing the same clothes from the day before. His curly hair was also rather unkempt, standing upright as though he constantly ran his fingers through it. As he scarfed his meal down, Harry told the couple that Julie had been acting even more suspicious the night before than she had been the entire year.

He had always suspected her and tried to follow her whenever he could but last night it seemed that she no longer cared if she was caught doing something odd.

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The first thing Harry had done after Scott dropped him off was head right back to the woods. He tried to see if Julie was still around the area, but it speared that she had already left. Luck was on his side though because he was able to catch the faint smell of herbs from the traps that she had placed. The odors must have rubbed into her clothes and still lingered in the area before the rain could wash it way.

Harry was then able to follow the smell and track her back into the city limits and eventually came across a flower shop that was just closing for the night. He stayed across the street away from the street lights, leaning up against the wall of a building as he observed her. The bright lights inside the shop allowed Harry to clearly see Julie as she talked to the worker.

He watched as she bought three small bouquets, each holding the same type of flowers. From his distance, he was only able to take note of the petal colors, ranging from pale pinks, blues, and whites.

Julie then took them to her house where Harry spied from across the street once more. He knew he looked completely shady as he climbed a tree to sit on a sturdy branch, but he was desperate to observe and not let her out of his sight for even a minute.

With the height of the branch, he was easily able to stare through her kitchen window which she never bothered to close the blinds to. The blonde woman scurried between her kitchen and dining room as she began taking things out of the refrigerator and pantry, placing items upon the small table alongside the flowers she had put down when she first arrived home.

Eventually splayed across the table were the bouquets, a bottle of cooking oil, a white package with plastic over the top, a small carton of eggs, and a blender along with a few droppers and silverware.

He did not understand what the woman was doing but continued to observe as she put a dropper into the bottle of oil, extracting enough to only fill half of the dropper and dispensing it lightly onto the petals of one of the bouquets.

Next, she tore the plastic covering off the white package to reveal to Harry what looked to be shrimp. She cut up the small critters and mixed them with water into the blender. She did the same thing with clean dropper to the second bunch of flowers.

And lastly, the eggs were stirred until the yolk and whites mixed, when Julie once again used a dropper to coat the petals of the last bouquet.

He could only stare in confusion as she began to clean up once her project was complete. Julie placed the flowers upright on the kitchen counter, leaning against the wall to let them dry. She eventually went to bed and Harry refused to move.

He stayed there the entire time she slept.

It was around 6 o'clock that he heard her phone ringing. Harry was just able to hear from his distance that it was Hannah asking the woman to come early to the headquarters. He watched her leave, taking the flowers with her. He trailed her once more, but she simply went to visit Hannah directly. He loitered outside of the building for a few hours before giving up when he never saw her leave.

That was when he decided to call Scott.

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"You don't have any idea what she could be doing with the flowers?" Scott asked as they stepped out of the café, wandering around as they walked off their big breakfast.

"Not really. It was odd, and I just know that it means something. I mean, three dead werewolves and three things of flowers? It's connected, I'm sure of it."

There was a short pause in conversation as they continued to walk along the sidewalk. Malia finally spoke up, stopping as she did so, looking down at her feet in concentration.

"What's the date today?"

"Uh," Scott looked at his phones locked screen and recited word for word what it told him, "Monday, July 13th."

He looked up in time to see Harry widen his eyes in recognition.

"What is it?" He looked at Harry as he asked the question, but Malia was the one to answer.

"It's the anniversary." She turned to look at Harry. "I'm right, aren't I? I remember Hannah saying that you have be going to see her every day for almost a whole year now."

"Yeah," he croaked, "It's now been exactly a year since the first death. It was especially hard because that was the youngest one. We all lost Veronica and we didn't know how to deal with it."

He gave a pause as memories flooded his mind. He held a neutral face, as though he had not more tears to shed after only just one year. "I can't believe I forgot."

Scott shared a look with Malia, keeping quiet to let the man mourn the anniversary for a moment. Knowing he would want to move along, Scott eventually placed his hand on the older man's arm, bringing him back.

Malia started talking again, trying to get him to focus on what they had been speaking about, without needing him to join in conversation until he was ready.

"I bet that's what the flowers are for. I just don't get why she got three bouquets at the same time. Wouldn't a person normally get one thing of flowers for one death?"

Scott's face shifted in concentration. "And what about what she did to the flowers. It's weird."

"Well it has to mean something."

The more Scott tried to piece it together, the more confused he felt. He told his two companions that he wanted to visit the woods once more, hoping it might help him think.

When they arrived, they were surprised to see something had changed while they were gone from the day before. As they got closer to the overturned tree, they saw one of the bouquets resting atop the mossy bark.

Julie must have found enough time to visit the woods between Harry leaving for breakfast and now.

Harry's shock paralyzed him, and he fell onto his knees as he simply stared with eyes wide open. His heart started to beat fast and tears once again crept into his eyes. He was so sure now. He always suspected that woman, but this was it. This was the physical evidence he had always needed.

Scott and Malia gave him space and time to himself as they moved closer to look. Scott was able to determine the breed of flower and told the two that they were Hydrangeas. Malia gave him an odd look at how quickly he knew that.

"Deaton." Was all he said in explanation with a shrug of his shoulders.

She leaned in closer to the flowers and took a sniff. Scott thought it was cute when she quickly pulled away with a wrinkled nose.

"It smells like raw egg."

"Well it's definitely one of Julie's from last night then. Does the type of flower mean anything to you, Harry?"

They turned back to find that Harry had come over to them. He had finally pulled in his emotions and held a blank face as he looked down at the flowers.

"No. Not that I can think of right now anyways."

He told them he needed to see the other two sites and they took off to the nearest one.

Indeed, another one of Julie's flower bunches rested near where a second body had once been in its place. Malia gave another smell to the Hydrangeas and told them it smelled of seafood.

They traveled further through the woods and came upon the last location which revealed the last of the flowers. Malia said that the last one smelt of nuts, which Harry connected to the bottle he saw Julie use the night before.

"I bet it was peanut oil she used."

"Okay, let me get this straight," Scott said, pausing to gather his thoughts, "This Julie person is a hunter that is part of a treaty with you guys. She disobeys it, kills three werewolves – somehow leaving no trace – and a year later she goes and puts coated flowers where they were found?"

Malia gave a nod in agreement, "And what's up with that anyways? Why do that to the flowers, why those ingredients?"

Malia's word choice to say "ingredient" made Scott pause. It made him think of something familiar in the back of his mind, but it just would not come forward. From  _ingredient_  his train of thought traveled to  _cooking_  and then  _food_. But that just made him think of the eggs and peanut oil in the sense of  _ingredient_  once more and his just circled back on his thoughts.

"I'm not sure about those specific foods," Scott replied, "But she moved with familiarity. Not just about putting watered down shrimp or peanut oil on some petals, but also about what she did yesterday, remember? She made those rodent traps with all kinds of herbs inside that can hurt us. This woman knows what she's doing when it comes to using plants and ingredients to hunt and hurt us."

His two companions nodded in agreement. Julie knew what she was doing, and everything she did most likely had a purpose, no matter how odd it was.

"Well, what do you want to do with the flowers, Harry? Should we collect them to show to Hannah, or do you want to leave them as where they are as evidence?" Scott asked.

"How about we leave them and take a picture of them instead. That way if they're disturbed before we can come back, we still have something. Plus, you gotta admit, the smells are strong, especially for us. I don't want to be near those if I can help it."

After traveling back through the woods once more, and taking the pictures from each clearing, they eventually found their way back to downtown Seattle. Harry directed them to a restaurant that was near the hunter's apartment for both a light lunch and to keep watch on the building. After ordering their meals, they sat in a booth hidden in the corner of the diner to keep wandering eyes and ears away from them.

With a bunch of napkins splayed out and with the use of a borrowed pen from the staff, the three were-creatures began making a list to map out everything they knew. They wrote down the flowers breed and coatings, the location where the bodies were found, how it has been exactly a year since the first death, and most importantly how Julie Spring was involved.

The more they wrote down, the more obvious it seemed to Scott that this Julie was most definitely suspicious and most likely the killer. It made him angry that a hunter had done this to another small pack. It made him think about the Hales and how Derek (and even Peter) had suffered from everything that Kate had done to them.

While he was silent, Malia started to think aloud as she started to combine the puzzle pieces.

"So, it's been a whole year now. That means the flowers were for the anniversary…and the flower breed probably means something. I remember reading something like that with Lydia. The foods are strange too."

Harry gave a nod in agreement, "The anniversary thing makes sense. But the ingredients I saw her put on the petals is just strange. I just keep thinking that I know what that means, but it keeps escaping me."

"Hey, listen to this," Scott spoke up as he looked at his phone, "I just searched what Hydrangeas mean. With the colors we saw, Julie is basically saying she hates that she feels sorry for what she did and she's also is bragging about their deaths."

A low grumble came from Harry's throat.

Malia reached over to place her hand on his forearm, both in comfort and reminding him they were in public. He gave a smile in thanks as he tried to relax his shoulders.

"I thought you already knew what the flowers were?" She asked, turning back to Scott and hoping to lighten the mood for a moment to calm Harry.

"I do but only what they look like and how they can be used in things. I didn't learn about which flower I'm supposed to give to say, 'I think you butt looks nice' from Deaton."

Harry gave a small chuckle while Malia rolled her eyes with her own fond smile.

"Is that all they mean then? As a hunter with knowledge about how plants can affect supernaturals, you would think she would use a plant that can hurt us. Do the Hydrangeas have any properties that can do anything to us?"

He shook his head, "Not that I can see."

At that moment, Harry happened to peer outside the diner window in thought.

Right away, he recognized the bulky coat from the woods on the other side of the road. He lifted his gaze higher and saw the profile of Julie's face as she exited a sandwich shop. He fisted his hands and he growled once more.

He knew she had snuck away from him to go place the flowers. And here she was, getting lunch and acting as though what she had done meant nothing to her.

For Harry, everything was beginning to pile up on his shoulders. He had been on his own for a year now. Sure, there were other werewolves around that were on his side at the beginning, but that had dwindled down as they either gave up on trying to expose one of Hannah's high-ranking hunters or moved away to avoid being the next victim.

Catching sight of Julie in the middle of the city, pretending to be a regular person and pretending to not be a hunter that went and killed his pack angered him.

It felt as though his tolerance was a cup that had been filling throughout the months. Losing one pack member after another had devastated him. Now opening the wounds recently to gain Scott's allegiance had only made him more anxious and angry that his cup had now overflowed. It had taken him this long to get this close to catching her and she was so close now he had evidence.

He noticed that she was headed in the direction of the hunter's apartment and he remembered that she had been there this morning. She probably only left to place the flowers and was grabbing lunch for an alibi as she headed back to the building.

He stood up in a rush to follow, never taking his eyes off the woman as she continued down the sidewalk. A hand grabbed his wrist and he looked down to see Scott giving him a worried look.

"Where are you going?"

"It's her! I just saw her. I need to see where she's going." Harry seemed dazed as he never took his eyes off her even as he replied to Scott.

"Okay, okay. We're coming with you. Just let me pay real quick. You and Malia can get a head start but don't take off without me."

After paying too much but ignoring the flustered worker that tried to give him change, Scott rushed outside, and he saw Malia and Harry a block away. They were stopped at an intersection and were staring across the street. He jogged up to them as Malia turned to him and said that Julie had gone back into the hunter's headquarters.

The three debated whether to go in or wait it out.

Scott got his answer when Harry's growing frustration and anger got the best of him, and he started across the street as he told them he wanted to confront her and explain everything to Hannah for the last time.

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Once again Scott and Malia followed Harry as he stepped into the fancy apartment and made his way to the front counter. Giving up their thumb prints to Gavin and his sign-in sheet, they eventually made it to the top floor.

With fire in his veins, Harry took the lead and walked up the door without waiting for the assistant talk to them. He just put his hand on the door and turned to stare the woman down until she simply pressed the button, intimidated by his gaze.

He stalked down the hall and slammed his fist against the office door, pounding with a bit more force than was needed.

They received no answer.

Trying to listen in to see if someone was even in there, Scott instead heard some heartbeats coming from somewhere further in the penthouse. He told as much to Harry, hoping to cool the man down a bit. Knowing where they might be coming from, Harry led Scott and Malia back out to the living room and down another hallway that had a few doors lining each side.

Harry went right to the one at the very end, opened the door without knocking, and stopped short right in the archway. Scott almost walked into the older man from his sudden stop and was about to tell him off, when he heard how fast Harry's heart had become and the smell of anger slowing building.

"Hey what wrong?" Scott reached forward to put his hand on Harry's tense shoulder.

Without saying a word, he moved aside to let the other two see who was in the room. A decently sized table sat in the middle of the space. Plenty of chairs were placed around it and a couple of the seats were currently occupied.

It was a meeting room and it seemed that a meeting was currently being held.

The only two that Scott recognized were Hannah and the large man that had stood guard in her office. The other two were another man and woman. He was more on the smaller side with wild sideburns while the woman had pale, stringy hair that covered her eyes every time she turned her head.

Still feeling the tense aura coming off Harry, Scott looked back to the older wolf. The older man's anxiousness was beginning to affect the alpha.

Harry's eyes were wide, showing off how blue they were while his pupils were tiny pinpricks. He was staring directly at the pale woman and never made a move to turn away for her.

She stared back at him with indifference. If one were to look closer however, they would see that a few beads of sweat were forming near her temples.

"Sorry Hannah," Scott finally said, turning back to the people at the table hoping to sound calm, "We didn't know there was a meeting going on. I don't want to interrupt, but if you don't mind, can you wrap it up? We need to talk. Now."

Scott was not usually this aggressive, but with everything that was going on, he could not simply wait around anymore.

"Uh, okay." Hannah had a look on her face that seemed to be nervous as she shifted her gaze between Harry and the blonde woman.

She moved slow as she closed the manila folder in front of her and addressed her three companions, "Daniel, Franklin, Julie, would you three be so kind as to let me stop this meeting shorter than planned. It appears that something has come up."

She tried to remain calm and professional to hurry the three hunters out of the room since she knew that having Julie and Harry in the same room for too long would not be good for anyone.

Recently, her own resolve in Julie had begun to waver. Her doubt had been growing and she had even started doing her own investigations.

Hannah now believed Harry and thought Julie to indeed be the one that had killed the three werewolves. Hannah had planned for this small meeting to confront the issue without any more bloodshed.

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Harry had come to her office almost every day for an entire year now, trying to convince her that Julie was the one to kill three innocent werewolves. Each day, she would tell Harry that she believed Julie would never do such a thing.

However, Hannah had recently begun letting herself think from the other perspective.  _What if Julie had done it_ , she would wonder.  _What if Julie broke their treaty and killed three werewolves._  Would it have been justified? Had they broken the treaty first and bitten people and Julie had simply done what she thought best?

Hannah gave a bitter laugh, even her internal questions had tried to side with her fellow hunter again. She needed to be stronger than this. She needed to be able to think unbiased about something this important.

Harry had come to her  _every_  day.

He had been convinced that Julie had done it. He only ever gave the evidence that he saw her nearby. Even Harry knew that it was not enough evidence if one person said that they saw her around where the bodies had been found, but his conviction had finally seeped into Hannah enough that she had begun doing her own scouring as doubt began to grow.

It was as Hannah learned more about Julie's whereabouts during the killings, as well as what she was up to when on her own time, that her beliefs had wavered. From then on, Hannah had been diligent with keeping tabs on her.

The more she watched Julie and saw her under stressful situations where her true personality shined, Hannah saw bloodlust. She saw a woman that loved hunting for the excitement, for the chase, and for the kill.

Julie could be truly brutal when she wanted to be.

Hannah observed as one of her best botanists would regularly create new mixtures and objects to help them in their hunting endeavors. Julie had always been good at creating medicines and even poisons, so she would have been a good candidate to kill without a trace. It had just never crossed Hannah's mind that one of her most trusted would go against their treaty that said no one shall kill while in the set boundaries.

As peaceful as a hunter could be, Hannah had planned to talk with Julie. It was then that she had decided to speak with and observe her for a few hours. Afterwards, she planned to hold a small meeting simply consisting of herself, Julie, and two of her top hunters.

With less people in the room, Hannah had hoped to get Julie to be open and honest about what happened that day.

She had hoped that Julie would own up to the fact that they had caught her. Then, if she decided to become closed off or even aggressive, Hannah would be able to have her best people, Daniel and Franklin, there to restrain her would be enough.

Unfortunately for her, she only got so far as to refer to the killings before the door slammed open and there stood Harry, panting as though he finished the Tour de France, staring directly at Julie.

Her worry only increased as she realized that Harry arrived at the worst time.

Hannah had already started talking about the killings when he came in. She had already hinted that she accused Julie when he arrived and now Hannah was sure that Julie put together that they believed her to be guilty.

.

.

When Scott realized that there had been previous company, he paused. Yes, the plan had been to follow Julie into the building, but he had not thought that there may have been other people trying to go about a regular day.

He was here now though, so he straightened his shoulders as he moved further into the room. He told Hannah that they would leave for a moment so that she could end the meeting, implying that he wanted to speak sooner rather than later.

The room seemed to be thick with tension, as though an energy occupied every corner. Everyone seemed to stand still, afraid to be the one to ignite an imaginary fuse.

Scott was happy to see Hannah eventually move to close her folder as she told her hunters to leave and Scott noticed how stiff she seemed as she kept looking between Julie and Harry. He was about to comment that Julie could stay but was prevented for as soon as the blonde had stood to leave, he heard a yell come from behind him.

With the stillness dissipated as Hannah and Julie stood, it appeared that Harry had also been affected by the energy in the air. It seemed to have snapped whatever had been holding the man together. His struggle to find justice for his dead pack had finally caught up to him, and once again seeing the woman he knew had murdered them, he lost it.

It was the confrontation he had been waiting for.

" _You!_ " The single word was spoken with so much emotion and so much power, that Harry's entire body shook as he did nothing but stare into Julie's petrified eyes.

She jumped away from her seat at the word, distancing herself more from the enraged eyes. Her stance told everyone in the room that she knew she was caught, and she was ready to flee should she need to.

Scott only had enough time to turn back to look at Harry, when the older werewolf charged him past towards the blonde woman.

With a rage that Scott had not yet seen on Harry's face, he ran and tackled the blonde. They both fell to the ground. Julie gave a shout as Harry's weight took the air out of her and Scott heard a snap of a broken bone come from Julie's body.

While on top of her, Harry leaned down into her face and let out a deep and loud growl that shook the room. "How  _dare_ you! She was only  _twelve_  you fucking bitch!" Harry then moved his face away from her own to lift his arm. His claws were exposed, and Scott could guess what he was about to do.

He sprinted over just in time to grab Harry's arm before it could descend onto Julie.

"Don't Harry! Don't do this. I know you're beyond angry, but I think you want to hear it right? You want to hear her say she did it. You want her to know that all of this finally caught up to her and that everyone will know she did it."

"No, you don't get it McCall. This more than just pack! It hurts that the other two died but you just don't get it! Julie didn't just kill three werewolves, she killed a kid. A kid who wasn't just a part of my pack – Veronica was my daughter. My baby girl!"

His anger came back with a vengeance as he once more raised an arm and tried to lean forward, putting all his weight upon the woman that was still pinned underneath him.

A gunshot rang out and zipped past his head, too close for comfort.

During his attack, Harry had forgotten that there were other hunters in the room. He lowered his raised arm but did nothing to move off the woman that was trying to suck in air after being winded from the take-down.

"Stop, please!" Scott said as he turned to see who had fired the shot. His arms were full of an angry wolf and he had no way to dodge bullets.

The short man with the sideburns held a small gun with both his hands. He looked as though he were to give another shot in reply to Scotts plea, but Hannah placed her hand upon his own, forcing the man to lower his gun.

Malia ran up to help Scott secure Harry before he tried to do anything else, putting his arms to his back and pulling him away from the sniveling woman on the floor. He thrashed in their arms as he kept trying to get to his child's murderer.

Hannah came forward then, grabbing Julie and hauling her away from the wrathful father. She placed the blonde in a chair on the other side of the room and used her own belt to tie Julie's arms to the chair. Hannah decided to stand by Julie however, in case Harry got free and decided to go after her again. Even though Hannah was almost certain that Julie was guilty, it did not mean she wanted to see her killed.

Scott finally restrained Harry when he forced the older man to stare into his red eyes and submit to the alpha in front of him.

Malia thought it best to keep a grip on his arms as incentive.

With the action dissolved, Scott and Hannah were then able to sit at the table – albeit from each end of the long table to keep Julie and Harry from each other – to discuss the three werewolf deaths. He was able to explain the evidence the three had gathered to her and what Harry observed.

Her suspicions were finally confirmed, and Hannah did not know how to deal with it. With her own information about how Julie had been sneaking out of the city as well as her being one of the best at working with plants, combined with what Scott had to share, it was obvious to Hannah now.

On one hand, she felt betrayed that one of her own had broken her trust and her treaty to go after innocent people. Yet on the other hand, she felt glad that the yearlong mystery was finally solved.

She also knew that with the treaty that they had, something this serious could not go unpunished.

Hannah turned to glare at Julie before she looked over to the emotional Harry being restrained by Malia.

Her eyes filled with sorrow and sympathy for this man that had argued with her nearly every day about how one of her own must have been at fault. And she had never listened.

Hannah was a proud hunter and she thought she was a good one at that. She had honestly thought that she was one of the better hunters out there because she did not go around killing anything that was not human without a second glance. She followed rules that made her group more civilized then some of the other groups out there.

Looking back however, she could admit to herself that she was far from perfect.

Not everyone was as willing to treat werewolves and other supernatural creatures as actual people like she was. She had formed her own hunting group and naively thought the people who joined her would follow her ideals.

Hannah realized how foolish she had been to think that people from either side would simply follow the rules listed on a stupid piece of paper.

"I am  _so sorry_ ," was all she was able to voice. It was nothing more than a whisper, but it was loud enough for Harry to catch from across the room.

He had calmed down from his shouting to whines and whimpers as tears finally trailed down his cheeks. He looked up at her after she spoke and just held a blank stare. She was the first to break the gaze, ashamed and saddened. Harry slowly looked back down at his feet. His energy was sapped from him and now all he wanted to do was lie down and never get back up.

Malia had released her hold when she had felt him go lax in her arms. He then slumped down to knees, simply sitting on the floor of the meeting room. She did not leave his side and instead sat down next to the grieving man. She crossed her legs and took his hand into hers, holding it tightly in her lap and stroked her thumb along the back of his hand.

After Scott explained all that they had found, and Hannah told them of her own suspicions, they eventually turned to Julie.

They wanted to hear what she had to say, but Scott hesitated.

He wanted Harry to listen in but was not sure if he had the mental strength to do so. Scott told as much to the woman across from him when Harry spoke up from where he still sat with Malia, Scott knew he had not been as quiet as he had hoped he was.

"I need to hear, and I won't attack her again. You have my word."

Scott believed him.

Turning back to the matter at hand, Scott did not know where to start. Of course, he wanted to know  _why_  Julie did it, but he did not know how to form his thoughts into words. Lucky for him, his girlfriend and her forward personality did it for him.

Julie refused to answer Malia and instead squeezed her eyes shut and pursed her mouth. She did not struggle in her bindings, but her posture told them that she would escape if given the chance. She had been caught and she did not know what to think. She could try and run, but then she would not have Hannah by her side.  _But surely Hannah knows that I did this for her,_  she argued to herself.

Still, she refused to speak. Sealing her mouth and eyes was all she could do to not converse with the older woman.

It was only after Hannah surprisingly went up to the blonde and slapped her across the cheek, hard enough to turn her head, that she reacted. Her shoulders tensed in the bindings, and she gave a chuckle as her pale hair hid her face from everyone in the room. Her shoulders shook in laughter and when she lifted her head high enough to stare into Hannah's eyes, all the older woman saw as insanity.

"Fine, I'll tell you. I'll tell you whatever you want to know, but you'll know I'm right. What I did was right!" A smile that was all teeth began forming on her face as the curtain of loose hair hid most of her eyes. "I did this all for you, Hannah! You can hit me and hate me all you want, but I am in the right! I did no wrong!"

.

 **[ . . . ]**  

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Julie Spring was a smart woman.

She had been an even smarter child, growing up in a less-than-loving home. With that type of home life, she learned to fend for herself from an early age.

She could always be found holed up in the town library every evening, only happy when she was surrounded with shelves upon shelves of books. She studied everything she came across believing there was nothing more powerful in the world than knowledge.

She especially loved nothing more than reading about plants. From the smallest type of bud to the largest tree breed, she was fascinated by everything and became obsessed in finding the next book she had yet to read for herself.

She was a loner and she was fine with that. She did not need friends to make her happy; that was what the books were for.

It was when she was in her seventh year of schooling that something changed for the young girl.

She met her new neighbor Heather and they became quick friends. The two girls bonded over their shared interest in books and became inseparable. It was only a few months into the schoolyear and the two were already the best of friends, confiding all their secrets to each other.

It was no surprise then that one cold night, Julie ran from home when her father was a bit too flushed from alcohol. Escaping to the home of her only friend, she was easily able to climb to tree to the second floor of the house and knock on Heather's window.

After learning about why the blonde small came to her house, Heather knew the best thing to cheer her best friend up. With a partner in crime, the two young girls gathered a few snacks and gear and snuck out to woods that surrounded their town.

They had a blast as they played tag, climbed the tallest trees, and jumped into piles of the changing autumn leaves. It might have been a cold night, but the two girls could not think of anything more fun than playing while the rest of the world slept. They were happy to be away from their struggles and ignore life outside of their little bubble for a while.

What neither of the girls knew was that they were not the only people in the woods that night. They had been observed since they had first entered the woods.

Heather was energetic as the two played one last round of tag and wound up farther ahead of her friend. Even with her flashlight and the moon shining a path for her, the deeper the woods got, the harder it was to see her surroundings.

It was the typical story of a person being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

She never saw the figure come towards her. She only had the chance to let out a single scream when she saw a pair of bright red eyes appear in front of her.

Julie heard her shout, followed its direction, and found Heather soon enough. She was laying in the dirt as red oozed from her shoulder and painting the scattered leaves surrounding her. Being a young child, Julie did what she knew best.

She gave a scream of her own and ran.

The young girl was smart enough to gather her thoughts however and run for help and when they returned to Heather, she was able to be moved and be taken to the hospital. She was patched up and the entire event was eventually ruled an animal attack.

But Heather said differently.

She told everyone who would listen that it was a monster that bit her. Only Julie believed her. They were best friends and best friends believe each other.

Heather eventually healed from the attack. In fact, her parents and Julie noticed that she healed remarkably fast.

It was strange, but her parents were happy that the wound would be gone soon, and the entire event could be put behind them. The girls eventually went back to their own pattern of school and library visits, also letting the horrible night be put in the past.

However, a month later, everything changed.

. 

.

The two girls had planned a sleepover at Heather's house. They had a blast throughout the evening as they built a fort out of blankets, drew pictures while watching cartoons, and helped Heather's mom bake cookies.

The sun was beginning to set when Heather began to act out. She was quick to anger and complained that the cookies smelled too sweet. She accidentally tore the blanket that was the entrance to their fort and even bared her teeth to Julie when she teased her.

It turned for the worst as the full moon rose higher in the sky.

Julie had been dozing off in their fort when she was abruptly awoken by a shriek and glass breaking.

She bolted out of the fort to see into the kitchen through the archway. Heather's mom was sitting on the counter. On the tiled floor was a shattered glass cup that she had dropped in favor of climbing the counter. Her legs and arms were pulled tight to her chest as she held a terrified look in her eyes as her gaze stared at something Julie could not see from where she stood.

She began to step forward when Heather's mom turned to look at her at the movement.

"No! Don't move!" She gave a loud whisper as her voice shook with fear.

It was no use. As soon as she had taken her eyes off whatever was behind the corner, it had moved to follow her line of sight.

It was Heather, yet it was not Heather.

Her hair was as black and long as before and her freckles still made a funny star shape on her cheek. But her brown eyes were now gold. Her pink painted nails were chipped and elongated. Her mouth held fangs as they leaked with saliva and her brow was furrowed so deep Julie thought that she looked like one of those cavemen from her school textbook.

With a prey closer to her than the woman on the counter, Heather began stalking towards Julie. The young blonde stood frozen in fear. Her eyes were wide, and her hands shook at her sides. She wanted to scream at what Heather looked like, but her brain would not listen.

"No, Heather!" Came a shout from her mother as she finally snapped out of her shock. She slid off the counter and headed for the two girls.

Heather moved quicker, and she leaped the rest of the distance between herself and Julie. Limbs flailed as they tumbled to the carpet floor and that was when Julie was finally able to let her scream escape.

Her neck and upper arms felt like they were burning.

All she could do was stare wide eyed at the ceiling as she felt the weight of Heather on top of her as she tore her apart. The pre-teen was eventually yanked away, and Julie was lifted into gentle arms. She eventually looked up to see Heather's dad holding down his squirming daughter.

Shock flooded Julie's body. All she could do was sit there and listen as tunnel vision forced her to stare at the wall in front of her.

She heard Heather's mom whispering in her ear that everything would be okay, she heard shouts and screams and growls from her best friend while her father shouted her name over and over hoping to snap her out of whatever was happening.

Julie eventually heard sirens blaring from outside and people lifting her up and taking her to the hospital.

She had to get stitches. She was told she would still scar though as the bites marks and scratches had been deep.

The attack had taken no more than ten minutes but the even would haunt Julie for the rest of her life. Her best friend had turned into a monster and had attacked her.

Heather's parents decided to move after that.

Julie never learned what happened to Heather and if she stayed with her parents or was taken somewhere else.

After all of that, it awoke something in the young blonde and from then on, she practically lived in the town's library. With no new friends there to pull her away from her books, she continued to obsess over plants, but she had now found another subject to fixate on.

. 

.

Over the years, she learned all about the supernatural world and all the creatures that lived alongside regular people. She hated everything she learned and her bitterness towards anything not human grew every day.

They were not normal. They were monsters that attacked little girls in the woods and would kill anything that is not like them.

Julie applied her knowledge of plant life to her new obsession and they eventually combined into the famous hunter Julie Spring. One of the best hunter's known for their use of medicines and poisons.

The attack all those years ago still haunted her, and she never let it go. Instead, she let it mold her into the woman she now was.

She knew that the werewolf that bit and scratched her that night was not her best friend. No, Heather died that night in the woods and a monster had taken up her place, wearing her skin, pretending to be Julie's friend.

A few more years passed with Julie constantly traveling across the country. She was a nomadic hunter and took care of anything unusual that she would come across. She worked with locals sometimes, but she found she worked best alone.

Julie then arrived in Washington one day and she met Hannah and she fell in love.

Hannah was a fellow hunter and a beautiful one at that. Julie knew then that she would do anything to gain her attention.

She found out that Hannah had lived in Seattle all her life and when she learned the secret about supernaturals, she was okay with it. Because some of the locals were werewolves that she had known for years, her perception of them had never changed. Hannah believed they were still good people that needed to be looked after just like regular people.

But Julie knew better. She knew that they were monsters doing nothing but biding their time and it was now her job to protect Hannah from their influence.

So, Julie decided to stay in Washington. She joined the local group of hunters and followed Hannah's little treaty, but she continued to be alert. Just because the werewolves signed the agreement did not mean they were anything but feral beats borrowing their victims' bodies.

They might have agreed to not harm and turn people in the boundaries of Seattle, but that did not mean they would never leave the city to satiate their appetites. The monsters were lying to her Hannah and Julie would do whatever was needed to keep her safe.

It was then that she met Harrison Williams. More precisely, she met his daughter, Veronica Williams.

Sweet, baby Veronica, the daughter of a werewolf and unfortunately born one herself.

She looked like Heather.

She looked like  _Heather._

This werewolf stole another little girl's face. She was no sweet child, that was another monster that would change with the full moon and turn into something ugly and not human.

 _Veronica does not deserve this_ , Julie thought to herself. This girl could have lead a normal life if her father had not been a werewolf himself.  _The girl may be gone, but that doesn't mean I can't help with her body_ , she continued thinking,  _I can get rid of that monster inside and free her spirit._

And so, Julie began her quest to create the perfect medicine to help save Veronica.

She knew that she would need to remove the host from her body to make Veronica's soul pure again. She started by going over every plant she knew that was naturally deadly. Sure, some of them killed even werewolves, but Julie knew that she would be suspected right away due to the common knowledge of her expertise.

Julie eventually recalled that during her nomadic travels, she met a fellow botanist hunter who had discovered that the Hydrangea flower had an interesting property. On its own, it was a regular flower, but when mixed with something, it was especially deadly to were-creatures.

The other botanist had been playing around while on their lunch break. They had eaten apple slices with peanut butter when their coated fingers had contaminated the petals of the plant. Later that day, they went out with the hydrangeas and encountered a rouge werewolf.

To their surprise, the werewolf had grabbed his arm and wound up being close enough to the plant that he was affected by the mix between the flower and peanut butter.

Even though the werewolf had taken the bite and successfully turned over a decade ago, the man showed the symptoms of an allergic reaction. It was surprising given that health issues tended to fade away with the change.

His skin had turned red with rashes swarmed his arms and neck and had eventually started gasping and choking as his throat closed. Even though he had not consumed anything, the power of the plant had strengthened the reaction to the extreme.

He died quickly after and the hunter was able to steal away the body to study it more as no one else had been around to see the encounter.

It had worked for the other hunter, so it would most likely work for Heather too.

Julie began to run tests. She would leave the city, following Hannah's treaty, and hunt down roaming omegas. With one captured, she would test every known allergy there was with the flowers to see if they had an effect.

Her findings turned out wonderful.

If a turned werewolf had an allergy before they were bitten, they could still be affected if the substance was combined with the flower. The resulting physical reactions were the same as the previous werewolf had with a rash and closing of the throat. As soon as they died, the redness went away, and the throat stopped swelling.

Resulting in no lingering evidence of how they died.

Julie hypothesized that even though they were taking their last breath, their supernatural healing properties were trying to heal themselves, hence the healing of the skin and throat. So, when they were finally dead, the body held no indication of how they had died.

It was unfortunate that they would suffer for a few moments, but besides Veronica, Julie felt that all werewolves deserved to feel a bit of agony in their last moments.

The next problem that Julie faced was that Veronica was a born werewolf.

If she had never been a human, it was not known if she would still have an allergic reaction to anything. Still, she pushed forward with her plans and wound up creating a few different concoctions. She started with the most common allergies that people had. She thought her main problem would be getting the flowers to the girl, but Julie was pleasantly surprised to see the girl play in the woods like Julie had done all those years ago.

When Veronica left the woods one day, Julie placed a single hydrangea coated in milk near the tree that she favored to play on. She observed the next day that Veronica happily picked up the flower and nothing happened. Julie was not giving up any time soon and the next day, she placed a second flower this time coated in peanut butter.

Again, Veronica was able to hold the flower with no problems.

They say the third time is the charm, and unfortunately for Veronica, it was true. Julie had read that egg was a common allergy for kids to have so she placed coated the flower and watched once more.

Julie knew that it was gamble to do this three days in a row, but she had to know. She needed for this to work.

A lot of things were hanging on this outcome with the most important one being Veronica herself. Julie knew that the longer this werewolf grew up, the longer the girl's soul was trapped inside, suffering every month by turning into a monster against her will.

She also needed to see if born werewolves shared something with their bitten family. If this worked, Julie would be able to wipe out any monster that was in her path – so long as they had an allergy.

As she sat there in the shadows, Julie saw her efforts finally being rewarded.

Veronica had picked up the stem of the plant and had only placed two fingers upon the petals before she fell to her knees. She gave a gasp as she coughed and stared in shock at her reddening hands.

Julie ran out as fast as she could. She collapsed to her own knees in time to cradle the werewolf's shoulders. Startled eyes looked up at her and Julie did nothing but stare back. She held no smile and no look of concern. She simply gazed upon the monster that resided in the body she was holding.

"It's okay now. You don't need to struggle. It's not much longer."

Little sounds tried to escape the creatures mouth, but nothing understandable came out. Instead, glowing eyes narrowed as claws tried to reach up to Julie's face.

The hunter was impressed at their tenacity even as she easily leaned back to escape the swipe at her. The monster still had this much fight left in them to try and survive. Julie continued to hold their shoulders and support their head. Even though the creature was still inside, she had to be there when they left so that she could take care of Veronica's body.

It was finally quiet.

Julie looked down to see closed eyes. Slowly standing up with the body in her arms, she walked over to the nearby fallen tree. She positioned Veronica to sit upon the ground with her back resting against the bark and her head tilted onto her shoulder.

Stepping back, Julie hoped that her intention to make her look sleeping worked. Veronica looked peaceful, as though the burden of carrying a monster inside her was finally lifted. Like the previous werewolves, the rash and swelling were gone, leaving nothing to tell people of what happened.

Leaving the area after making sure her scent was completely erased from the area, she headed back to her home.

. 

.

As she had hoped, random people came upon Veronica's body and contacted authorities.

It made the news, and no one knew how she died.

Even within the supernatural community, it was unknown. The treaty between the werewolves and hunters stretched thin with Harry screaming for justice, other werewolves worried that they might be next, and the hunters confused about what was happening.

Julie hated that Harry had seen her around the area. He had caught her by surprise and now she had to lay low for a while in the hopes that it would all simmer down soon.

Two months passed before Julie decided to run more tests. She tried taking care of Harry and few more werewolves in the area, but she found that the ones she tagged were not affected like Veronica and the others before her. It was unfortunate that Harry was now wandering around the city suspecting her of doing wrong, but nothing could be done about it right now.

Recently, she had caught one that had been affected. Going back through all her notes, she thought she had finally come up with a plausible explanation for why some werewolves were dying and others were not.

If one was a human born with allergies and got turned, they still held that trait only it was simply buried underneath the supernatural healing. A born werewolf was like a human in this sense.

Whether born or bitten, some will always be susceptible to certain foods and plants around the world. For those born a werewolf however, they would never notice this due to their powers constantly healing them, unless the reaction was forced upon them from something such as a hydrangea rising its potency.

With the mystery solved, Julie was saddened that she would not be able to completely wipe werewolves off the planet, but she was happy doing what she could to take care of the rest.

Screw Hannah's treaty, she was protecting her by doing this.

Getting back into the swing of things, Julie once again began coating flowers and laying them around the woods for unsuspecting werewolves, hoping to catch the few that would fall prey to the ingredients.

To her surprise, she only ever got two more. She did not know if it was due to the lack of werewolves in the area, or if there were only so few people with allergies to a ratio of those without.

It seemed that her luck ran out however, when it was almost a year since she had saved Veronica, that Harry's words finally got to Hannah. She had been called in on Veronica's anniversary for a meeting.

Having been anxious for a while now since she wanted to place her memorial at Veronica's resting place, Julie was happy to spend an entire day in Hannah's company instead.

It was only after lunch, during their next meeting, that Julie finally realized what was happening and her mood sunk.

Her beloved Hannah had just accused her. How could she know? She had been careful. Then Harry barged in and she was cornered. Her Hannah had teamed up with that monster? That wasn't right. Sure, her Hannah liked to believe she could help them, but Julie knew it was impossible. They were monsters that killed and ate regular people like her and Hannah.

And she was proven right when Harry charged her and tried to kill her.

.

**[ . . . ]**

.

Scott leaned back in his seat in shock. He did not know what else to do. Hearing Julie speak like that was horrifying and disturbing. Before he was even bitten and introduced to the world of werewolves, he did not think he would ever have thought that anything not human would have been beneath him or even enough to be killed for just existing.

Yes, there were dangerous werewolves out there that were probably the definition of evil, but he was not one of them. And neither was his pack or all the others that he had been helping throughout the years.

Just like there are good and bad humans in the world, the same could be said for other beings that shared this world. Scott found a small amount of humor in the fact that Julie was the perfect example of one of the worst humans out there.

In the quiet that followed Julie's story, he glanced to the rest of the people in the room to gage how they were faring.

Hannah held a look that had so many emotions as her eyes shut, her brow twisted, and the corners of her mouth shook. Most prominently however, were the tear tracks that fell from her closed eyes. She turned her head away from everyone in the room as she tried to compose herself.

The two other hunters that had been in the meeting were still there. They were off to the side of the room, closer to the door. The large one had a face of stone, but his eyes bore into the back of Julie's head as he watched her every move to make sure she could not do anymore harm. The short one with the sideburns held more emotion in his face as he sneered in Julie's direction.

At least there were some honest hunters that followed the same ideals as Hannah.

Scott then looked to Malia and Harry. The older werewolf was a mess.

He was gripping Malia's shoulders as he leaned into her and Scott was sure it was painful even for someone as tough as her, yet she made no move to push him away. Instead, she wrapped one arm around his large shoulders and her other hand cupped the back of his head. His forehead was resting on her collarbone and Scott could see a profile of the most agonizing expression on his face.

His cry was silent, yet it seemed to be the loudest thing in the room.

His mouth hung open as he gasped occasionally, but no true scream ever came out. His eyes were squeezed shut so tightly, yet the tears never stopped nor slowed down and Scott was sure that Malia's shirt would be soaked as though she had stepped out into pouring rain.

It hurt to see the man like that, but Scott was still grateful that he was not angry enough to try and attack Julie once more before they were able to hear all that she said.

With that said, Scott did not know what to do now. Do they turn Julie in to the authorities? It would be the "proper" justice but then what about all the questions that could only be answered with the word "werewolf" somewhere in the mix.

Or should he let Hannah and her group of hunters take care of it?

Was there even a third option?

.

.

In the end, Hannah was the one to take Julie. She offered to, saying that it was her responsibility as well as her apology. She argued that had she bothered to listen to Harry at the beginning, perhaps it would not have taken so long for them to discover Julie.

Scott was never sure what they did with the blonde, but he soon realized that he did not care. He had been able to see how genuine of a person Hannah was and he felt he could trust her to do what she believed would be best when it came to how Julie should be dealt with. She may have been a hunter, but so were Chris and Allison and look how they turned out.

As for Harry, he had been a wreck for the rest of the day. He was overjoyed that he had been proven right about Julie and others now saw her how he had this whole time but he was emotionally and physically exhausted after the entire thing.

Scott and Malia were happy to take him home to rest. After an entire year of tracking and trailing to find justice for his dead pack-mates, he was finally able to properly mourn them.

They were smart enough to not leave the man alone though. They took turns watching over Harry as he slept and stayed at home for the next few days, making sure that he knew they were there for him and to support him. They tried not to leave his side too much as he started to get back to as regular a life as he could lead.

The couple knew that they had planned a road trip across the states, but now were not so sure.

Helping like they had here in Seattle was what they had planned to do throughout the rest of their trip, but now that they were here in the city, he and Malia were not sure if they wanted to continue to Virginia or turn back home.

Some of the earlier trips that Scott had gone out with Chris on had no been as emotionally taxing as this had been. Scott only met the older werewolf five days ago, but he could now say that he knew the other man. Scott would even call Harry a friend and as his friend, Scott wanted to make sure he was taken care of.

Then one evening when the three wolves were out for a dinner to get Harry out of the house, Scott made his decision. When Harry stepped away from the table to use the toilet, Scott was quick to turn to Malia and let her in on what he intended to do.

"I want to invite Harry to join our pack."

"Really?"

He simply gave a nod with his signature grin.

She gave her own smile in reply. This is what she loved about her boyfriend. Even though he was the alpha of their pack, he still took the time to talk to them to get their own thoughts and opinions. Of course, she knew that he would do still something if his heart was already into it, with their approval or not, but it was still something she appreciated regardless.

In this case, she agreed with his choice completely.

"I want you to ask him too. I'm also guessing that you're asking me in the place of everyone else since they're not here with us."

His grin turned a bit sheepish at being caught. "Yeah, but who else can argue when Malia Tate is the one that is approving to let someone join the pack."

She gave a laugh and leaned across the table to give a kiss which Scott as all too happy to give back.

"Okay guys, the old man has come back to the table, so put the flirting on pause."

The young couple did so with Scott looking flushed at being caught while Malia simply leaned back in her seat with a content expression. As Harry sat down, their meals arrived and they all happily tucked in.

For the most part, they ate in silence and after almost every bite, Malia would sneak a look at her boyfriend, waiting to see when he would finally speak up. He did no such thing and after they paid for the meal, they headed out to the park where they had first met.

They walked around to stretch their legs until finally, Scott practically dragged Harry over to the old picnic table where they first had introduced each other.

The older beta looked a bit uncomfortable as he sat down. Malia figured it was because of the memories the place was bringing back, but not sure if they were bad, good, or both.

"So, Harry," Scott began as he rested his elbows on the table, "I – we want to ask you something."

Harry shifted his eyes back and forth at the two wolves in front of him, not sure where this was going, but trusting them now more than ever after what they had done for him.

"Okay."

Scott thought it would be best to cut to the chase, "Come home with us."

Harry eyes widened with hope. "Home?"

"Yes, home. Home as in Beacon Hills, California. I want you to join my pack. Be a part of the family."

All Harry could do was look at his folded hands atop the picnic table with a relieved look as he spoke. "Wow. I, uh, don't know what to say."

"How about yes?" Malia asked.

"Well, of course I want to say yes, but I'm just not sure if you want to think it over a little bit before asking me again." Harry looked up to see both with a determined look on their faces as they started to argue that of course they wanted him. "What I mean is, there is just so much that would need to be done."

"What do you mean?"

"What about my apartment? I can't just up and leave."

"Yes you can, that place is a dump I've seen how you have been living Harry, and it's not good. I know you probably want a break from talking about it all the time, but I'm guessing you lost a lot, even after Veronica and your packmates dying. Probably your job, your house, I know I have never seen you with a car. Harry, I know it's been hard for you, but I want to help."

"Okay, but what about –"

"What about...?"

Harry took a deep breath, "What about Veronica? I can't leave this place knowing that she died here. I can't leave here and pretend to live as though I forgot about her."

Scott took a moment to piece together what he wanted to say as Harry gave him a fearful look at what he might hear come from the younger man.

"You will never forget her – I would be angry with you if you did. I'm sure you've heard the cheesy line about people never truly leaving you, but it's true. I'm also sure that you've wanted to leave this place for a while, but either you never really had a big enough reason to leave a place that holds so much history for you, or you keep doubting yourself and think of excuses so that you won't leave this place.

"Now with that said, let me tell you this, Harrison Williams," Harry looked surprised at his full name come out with such a commanding voice, "You will leave this city with us tomorrow, and you will come join my pack. You will never forget this place and what it means to you,  _good_  and bad. Probably about a month from now, you will doubt ever joining us and you will come find me and tell me as much. We will talk it out and I will remind you of what I am about to say right now:

"Your past shapes who you are, but don't let it hold you back from the future. You have lived here all your life. You had a pack and you had a family. I can say with certainty that a young girl once lived here named Veronica Williams, and I bet she was as amazing as her father. She most likely led a life filled with nothing but hope and a bright future, and it was horribly taken away from her too soon. Your life story is here Harry, I can clearly see that, but your future chapters are also out there and away from this place where you can live a life that Veronica will want to hear about some day.

"You have so much of your life left that I cannot just sit here and let you lose yourself in nothing but grief. It hurts, I know, but it can get better. I'm not saying that I know what you're going through, and I can't say that it will be better in another year or even ten more, but someday, I want to be able to see my pack grow into something worth being proud of, and I want to see you there as part of it. I will not let you live a sad and lonesome existence when I can do something about it. You're important to me now, whether you like it or not, and if you have been able to go day by day for a whole year after what you have suffered through, I would want nothing more than to be there to help you shoulder your burdens. That is what pack is for."

Malia and Harry could do nothing but stare in shock with mouths dropped after Scott finished.

Harry had enough of all the emotions and crying he had done in the past week, but he still let a shaky smile overtake is face as he looked across the table as such an amazing person. He had never had anyone in his life ever talk about him so passionately.

Everything that Scott had said was true. He wanted to leave and, yet he did not.

Every time Harry even dreamt of escaping Seattle, he would trap himself with doubt. He needed to expose Julie, he needed to do what was right, he needed to find a new job so that he could pay off his rundown apartment. Day after day, Harry would think of a new reason for him to stay, guilt tripping himself so that he could never escape.

He squeezed the bridge of his nose to stop any more tears from falling, but it was no use. He then went for wiping harshly with the heels of his hands, annoyed that he was crying even though he was happy.

He could easily recall when he had spotted Scott in that alley with his tattoo displayed for him to see.

It had been like fate.

His hope surfaced once more, and he had been ready to fall to his knees to ask for help and to leave with them when it was all said and done. He had just wanted to be a part of another pack after so long.

Then Scott had turned him down without Harry getting the chance to ask and his doubt and self-guilt came back.

Yet here Harry was not even a week later, and the same young man now wanted him. His thoughts whirled around in his head thinking about all that Scott had just told him. How he wanted him to live his life and how Scott wanted him to treasure what he had in the past.

And how  _Scott_  wanted him.

And how Scott  _wanted_ him.

And how Scott wanted  _him_.

When the tears refused to stop, and the gasping would not let up, he accepted it and lowered his hands to stare at the alpha werewolf in front of him. He was sure he looked like a mess and Scott would tease him about it, but he was just so relieved that someone wanted him, and that he would get the chance to live and be happy once more.

Scott was right, he would never forget his pack and daughter, but he just wanted to belong somewhere again.

Instead, Scott beamed with his own shining eyes and reached his arm across the table to offer his hand, "Let's go home."

"Okay."

**End Chapter 3**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm having fun writing this story, but I also have a life of my own so posts might be slow and sporadic. With that, I'm all for feedback of any kind, so just saying "Cool" would let me know if people want to see this story continue.
> 
> Also, besides like one or two things, this story is practically writing itself, so if there is something you want to see, or if you have an idea, let me know! I know some might have seen this story turn in a weird direction, but I promise, I have at least some direction.


	4. In the Moment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A huge thank you to all that have given this story a shot and read it. I hope that I can continue to write things that keep you all wanting to come back.

**Posted February 8, 2018… Revised June 27, 2018**

**Inspired Song:[Kygo - Permanent ft. JHart](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=181f8H8nUsw)**

 

.

.

After everything was said at the park, it was not hard for the trio to leave Seattle soon afterwards.

They stopped at Harry's apartment to gather the few things that were precious to him like a frame of his long since passed wife Brynna holding Veronica as a baby, and a hand made charm bracelet his daughter had made for him a few years ago. As soon as he collected the items, Harry was quick to wear the bracelet. For the longest time, he had kept it stored safely so that it would not become ruined, but from now on, Harry would never be found without the charm securely tied on.

Harry did not bother with contacting Hannah or any of the werewolves he had once talked to before leaving. Seattle was in his past now, and he felt no need to let anyone know where he was headed.

Getting back in the car for one last trip back home was a small adventure for the three. Malia was tired traveling by car and she sat in the back as she complained about how long they had left. Scott was stuck driving behind slow semitrucks half the time and Harry sat in the passenger seat, fiddling with his fingers and bracelet, both nervous and excited to meet his new packmates.

At one point during the ride, Scott had finally gotten enough guts to eventually call back home and let everyone in on what had happened. Harry was shocked that he was only now contacting his pack to let them know a new member had joined and was on the way, but a look to Malia showed her give a shrug that said, 'What can you do'.

Harry was able to listen in on the call to hear the voice of a male speaking fast and excited as he talked in what sounded like a report of some sort. Harry could only assume the voice belonged to Scott's right hand who was left in charge while he was away. Scott barked a laugh at one point and said, "I told you so!" Harry eventually heard the voice speak about an interest in meeting him. Thank goodness - at least one person would not be too aggressive at the first meeting.

Hearing that made Harry determined.

Scott's speech back in Seattle had struck him, and he had no plan to leave the alpha now, not after all he had done for Harry. He would just suck it up if some of the people in his new pack hated him. That did not mean however that he was hoping for any of them to hate him.

They stopped occasionally to stretch their legs and to let Harry see some of the scenery that came with traveling but overall the three were ready for the trek to be done with, so they tried not to add to much time to their already sixteen-hour drive.

In the end they were happier than anyone else could have been when they finally passed the welcome sign into Beacon Hills the next day.

.

.

Scott pulled alongside the curb to his mom's house behind another car that was already parked there. It blocked half of the driveway which was already occupied with the other vehicles that belonged to the rest of the pack, meaning everyone was already gathered for the unplanned meeting.

Harry took his time getting out as he took deep breaths trying to calm his racing heart.

His musings were cut short when Scott came around to his side of the car and opened the door for him. His grin told Harry that he knew what was going through his mind but did not care and instead grasped Harry's upper arm to guide him out of the vehicle and head towards the front door.

The three could smell the aroma of grilled food and heard talking and laughing come through the open windows, forming the perfect picture of a summer day afternoon.

Scott opened the front door without any prompting and was the first to walk in as he gave a loud shout in greeting that was returned in an equal volume by several voices. The atmosphere only held joy and cheerfulness and Harry had not even put on foot inside the doorway, yet he felt the effects calming him completely.

Malia stood behind Harry and gave a small shove to both of his shoulders, making him jerk forwards and take his first step right into the house. She gave him a smirk as she squeezed past him to walk further in following Scott.

Not wanting to be left alone without the only two people he knew in the entire town, the ginger rushed forward to keep up with Malia as she passed through an archway that led into the kitchen.

There, Harry was finally greeted to the sight of the McCall pack in all its glory.

Glory that consisted of a boy even younger than Scott with a face covered in icing as he held a mushed cake held in his hands, while the rest of the people sitting at the table were doubled over laughing. One even laughed so hard, he leaned forward as he started choking yet continued to laugh with everyone else.

Harry gave his own chuckle before finally speaking up when there was a pause in the laughing, "Uh, did I already miss something?"

Scott turned to him and Harry could see a bit of icing on the tip of his nose, "This little punk thought he could get one past me and slam my face into that cake. But being the best alpha around," Scott paused as he rubbed his nails along his shirt in an exaggerated manner (Harry saw everyone else roll their eyes, even Cake Face), "I was able to see through his plan and instead made him eat his own words, literally, the cake said, 'Welcome Home'."

Harry smiled as he saw Cake Face finally put the ruined dessert down and try to wipe all the icing off his face with his hands. "Whatever Scott, I still got some on your nose."

An older woman with wavy dark hair stepped forward then as she took pity and helped the younger man as she grabbed a towel resting in the sink to help get rid of the sugary substance that was splattered from forehead to chin.

Scott hurriedly wiped the small amount of icing off his nose when most eyes turned away from him.

While the older woman, who introduced herself as Scott's mom Melissa, was busy continuing to help the beta clean up, the rest at the table had finally calmed down to look at both Harry and Scott as Malia left their side to take one of the open seats at the table and grabbed some of the food that had been laid out.

Scott glanced at everyone to make sure he had their attention before clasping Harry's shoulder.

"Well guys, this is Harry Williams," the older wolf gave a smile and nod in greeting, "and I asked him to join our pack. A lot happened while we were in Seattle, even though it was only about a week we were there, and in the end, I wanted this guy to come with me. I know this is a more sudden way than we've had everyone else join, but I wanted him and he said yes. So he's one of us now."

"Okay."

"Well of course he is."

"That's your speech?"

"Welcome to the family."

Harry was shocked, and he was sure his face told everyone that he was. It was that simple? Just like that?

Cake face was no longer covered in the prank-gone-wrong and he came to stand in front of Harry with a hand outstretched. "Hey Harry, I'm Liam Dunbar and Scott's first beta. Nice to meet you."

The older wolf could tell this was the voice he had heard in the car and what he could only assume to be Scott's right hand. Trying to make himself look presentable, he straightened his shoulders and shook the young man's hand.

Liam gave him a once over with a nod and smile when he said, "Glad you're here," before he went back to sit at the table.

The others came up to him after that, introducing themselves and only saying a few words like Liam about how they already accepted him when they hard about it from Liam's phone call the day before.

If he could feel anymore happy and welcome than he already was, Harry was sure he might burst from it all. The worry he had once held was nonexistent now and as he was guided into a seat at the table in between Malia and Liam, he felt there was no other place he could perfectly fit in to than where he was right now.

"So Harry, what should we know about you?" Liam asked.

"Whatever you want I suppose. Scott told you about how he helped me, but I don't really know anything else that is noteworthy to talk about."

Liam shook his head, "No, not like that. What I meant was I want you to tell us anything small or insignificant – anything really. We want to get to know our newest member. I want to hear things like your favorite color, if you were a clumsy kid growing up, and what music you like. Stuff like that. We're family now and that means we get to know all about you and your embarrassing stories." Liam finished with wiggling his eyebrows as a large smile that was all teeth filled his face.

"Oh Liam," Hayden said as she rolled her eyes, "you don't have to be so forward about it. Let the man settle down first. He literally just met his new pack a couple of minutes ago."

"Hey, I'm just trying to be welcoming here."

"Yeah well, I know I would probably want to stuff my face so that I wouldn't have to talk to you." Hayden said with a sly look as she glanced at her boyfriend from the side.

"Hey!" Liam tried to look offended, but everyone could see the humor the young couple had as they bantered back and forth.

"It's okay Liam, I don't mind." Harry interrupted. "I suppose that I enjoy green more than any other color. I would say that I was probably prone to the occasional stubbed toe or scraped knee as a kid, but nothing too horrible. As for music, well anything works for me I suppose. I do like a good slow song though"

"See, that's what I'm talking about! Unwind and let it all out. Since we're pack now, we get to talk about the best and the worst with people we know will never leave up behind. But you know, it's not like I'm a teacher that only wants the answers to the questions I asked specifically. You can tell us anything you want."

With nothing coming to mind, Harry looked over to Scott for some type of help. All he got were eyes that shined with humor as Scott stuffed his face with a large bite of a burger.

Feeling comfortable in the atmosphere the people surrounding him had made, and with nothing coming to mind, he thought it would be fun to tease Liam like he saw Hayden do.

"You're right Hayden, I would rather stuff my face instead of talking to him." Harry said as he reached in front of him to gather his own helpings of the food splayed out in front of him.

The table roared with a second wave of laughter as Liam gave a small pout that disappeared as he joined in the humor.

Hayden reached across her boyfriend so that she could give Harry a high-five, and Harry gave a sheepish smile as he glanced over to Scott to see him tilted back in his seat, laughing along with the rest of his pack.

If one were to have been walking past the Melissa McCall's house at that exact moment, they would have seen such a beautiful sight.

The afternoon sunshine graced the house in a warm blanket. Streaks of the rays shone into the windows and the open backdoor that came to rest within the kitchen. Laughter and conversation never stopped running through the air while the lingering smell of a grill and cut grass occasionally wafted through the street and into the home.

For the one observing from the outside that day, they would simply smile and be on their way, happy to hear that people were enjoying the day for what it had to offer and forget about it and soon forget about it.

But for those inside the McCall residence, that day would never be forgotten. The image of smiles and laughter and contentment and the pure love that could easily be read on every face at that crammed kitchen table, would be forever etched into their hearts. It was the day that marked their pack gaining a new member and it was the start of something new.

Harry Williams may have just arrived that day to meet his new packmates, but in just the span of one afternoon, he found his place right by their side and ignited the beginnings of a pack that would continue to grow.

.

.

In the month since then, Scott was happy to see how everyone got to know Harry and easily helped him integrate into the pack and Beacon Hills. He and Malia were all too happy to let Harry stay with them while he tried to find work.

After a bit of scouring in the first few days, Harry was able to find his place as a building laborer and eventually saved enough to get a small one room apartment. It was not as grandiose as some other occupations out there, but he was happy being able to do something with his hands. Plus, he found that he would have plenty of opportunities ahead of him since Beacon Hills seemed to have gained a population boost and had been in a steady growth in the last few years.

Scott recalled one of the first worries that Harry had come to him with at the end of his first week in Beacon.

After that first day meeting everyone and settling in, Harry had noticed that he was the oldest in the pack by quite the margin. He had also met Melissa at the time, but she had introduced herself as more of an ally rather than part of the pack.

Scott had laughed off Harry's concern stating that he had never really noticed because he had always had people like his mom, Noah, Chris, Peter, and even Derek when he had been around, to even out all the teenagers.

Harry had given him a funny look in doubt saying that he was the only old one  _in_ the pack, but eventually let it go when he realized that no one treated him any differently.

It was as Scott had said, there was Melissa, Chris, Noah, and even Jordan Parrish that he eventually met throughout the first month and got to befriend. He could see any of them on a regular basis if he wanted to talk to someone a little older, but after he told Scott his worries, he found himself accepting the age gap for what it was.

Even with the other people he eventually met, Harry still noticed that out of everyone in Beacon Hills only Jordan was close to him in age, but Harry was happy with what he called pack and family.

.

.

Once again, Scott started up his travels with Chris.

He felt no worries about leaving so soon after bringing Harry home since he was perfectly integrated into the pack, and was surprisingly close to Hayden and by extension, Liam. Harry never said anything about it, but Scott thought that Harry probably saw some parts of Veronica in her and that was how he grew to be an uncle figure to youngest female in the pack.

Scott's first day back in the swing of things had him and Chris gone and back in a single day trip. The second time, Scott was only away from Beacon for a little under 72 hours.

Since he was gone for such short intervals, Scott gave no thought to how he greeted his pack every time he came home. He would usually give a quick hug to those he saw or even a pat on the shoulder.

He noticed that every time he did that to Harry especially, the older man would beam in happiness anytime Scott so much as looked in his direction after he would arrive back in town, but lately, he found that Harry seemed a bit down when he would greet him with the regular reception.

It was only after the third time he left and came home after the shorter part of a week of being gone did Scott finally realize something seemed off between him and Harry. The older man acted no differently around him, but Scott felt like something internally was off.

When he got back home rather late the day he was supposed to arrive back, Scott was so tired that he had just gone home to Malia and gotten some much needed sleep.

The next day, he had gone about his regular day of a lazy morning until he was forced to get ready for his noon shift at the animal clinic.

For the first half of work, it had moved along like usual.

It was during his break however, that Scott stepped outside for some fresh air and was surprised to see Harry leaning against the wall, waiting for him.

"Hey Harry. What's up?"

The ginger bit his lip as he looked up from his feet, "Hi Scott."

"Is something wrong?"

"No!" Harry raised his arms up in denial and froze, "Yes. Maybe?" His arms swung back down to his sides in defeat.

"Oh...kay." He waited to see if Harry would say something and when he did not, Scott continued, "You can talk to me about anything that's on your mind. You know that right?"

Harry stared at the ground in concentration as he took in a deep breath and let out a slow sigh. When he finally looked back up at him, Scott was sure he saw a bit of pink dusted across Harry's cheeks.

"Can you touch me?"

Scott's eyebrows shot up so quick in surprise as he felt his own face begin to warm.

Harry's face shifted into complete horror as his entire face started to turn several shades darker. "Wait! That came out completely wrong! I swear I don't mean it like that." The last several words were muffled as Harry covered his face with his hands.

Scott tried not to shift too much as silence began to crowd the space. He gave a small cough to break the silence, "Then what did you mean?"

Harry peeked through the gaps in his fingers before dropping to his sides as he looked back towards the ground.

"I mean, I want to smell more like you. You've been gone for a while and the last time you left your mark on me, it was maybe before you left for that weekend to Fresno. I know I'm being a bit forward since I'm the beta here, but I just wanted to finally say what has on my mind for a while now."

"Huh?" Scott eloquently said.

"Uh, I don't know how to respond to that."

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Scott tried speaking again. "What I meant to say was that I don't completely understand what you mean. You want to smell more like me?"

"Well yeah. That's what an alpha does. Don't you know that?"

"Sorry, but no. I've only been a werewolf for a little under five years now and I never really learned much in the sense of how to 'properly' act like an alpha. Besides, Stiles was the brains out of the two of us and was the one that did all of the research."

"Oh wow. Really?" Harry was shocked. Scott held himself with such confidence and there were small things that Harry noticed the younger man must have done naturally that aligned with what most would consider alpha-like traits. "You've just been on your own all these years and grew your pack on your own then?"

"Well there was Satomi and even Deucalion that would try to teach me through small hints, but no one really taught me anything outright. I guess things were just happening so much that no one thought to teach me. I've told you about Derek, and he was the closest to a teacher I had for all this stuff, but he never got in depth about things before he left. I bet the others just assumed someone else was teaching me the ropes and I wouldn't say I  _grew_  my pack, most just naturally became a part of it."

"Well I must say Scott, I become more and more impressed with you every day that I am here."

Scott both blushed and beamed under the praise. "Thanks Harry. But what is all this about scent you were saying. Since I don't know much about anything, why don't you be the one to teach me?"

Harry gave a look of consideration. "I guess I could try. I mean, I can tell you the more common things about the werewolf community, but I definitely don't know much about alpha things."

"That's fine. Anything you can offer, I will gladly take. Occasionally when I was out with Chris, it just felt like I seemed out of the loop with protocols or just how to act with other werewolves and other packs."

"I get it Scott, don't worry. I'll do what I can, I promise. Before that though, um, well…" Red returned to Harry's face as he trailed off as he moved his arms in a 'come here' motion.

"Oh, sorry. I forgot already." Scott said as he moved forward. "What should I do?"

"A hug would be best, if you're okay with it."

Saying no more, the alpha happily moved forward to wrap himself around the beta. He loved giving hugs to people.

Once he stepped back, Scott immediately noticed a difference in himself and Harry. They both seemed less tense in the shoulders and if he focused enough, Scott could smell something familiar on Harry now.

"Thank you, Scott."

"You're welcome. What did I just do anyways?"

"Well, you know how everyone had their own specific scent?" Receiving a nod in answer, Harry continued, "You basically put a layer of your own on top of mine. It's what packs usually do to signify they are together. Its kind of like a tracker so that others know you belong somewhere already and can't hurt you without threatening an entire pack. A person tends to have their own scent that comes out of their skin like sweat. And like sweat, it can come out from everywhere on your body, but there are specific places that are more potent and are what we usually use to mark. Plus, it usually calms everyone in the pack to know you belong somewhere and you can share something so personal with others."

"Okay, I think I'm getting it," Scott said with a nod, "The hug was putting the potent parts closer to you right?"

"Precisely. First, our necks crossed, which is one of the strongest places you can mark another. Second, our hands went around each other where our wrists rubbed against the back of our necks and shirts. And third, depending on how you hug another, your underarms can come into contact with them and that will also strengthen the scent. Overall, it's a quick way to reinforce the bond between any two packmates."

"So that's what I am smelling on you now? That's me?"

"Sure is. They say that if you're around something for a while, you eventually get used to the odor. In this case, we are around ourselves all the time, so you only notice it when you leave it on something like a pillow or in this case, your pack. I bet you have been sensing yourself on the others this whole time and never realized what it was."

Harry gave a teasing grin as Scott gave a thoughtful nod as his own cheeks darkened slightly.

With that, Scott realized he was only on a break which had probably ended without either of them realizing.

Telling Harry as much, they parted with plans to meet up on Saturday for the older man to continue to teach Scott everything he could. Happy with what little he had already learned in just half an hour, Scott gave a second hug to Harry's surprise and delight. They finally parted with both parties shouldering less weight.

.

.

That weekend, the two spent the entire time as teacher and student, holed up in Scott's apartment.

The beta started out by continuing to explain scents to Scott by talking about how to make sure everyone in his pack smelled like him. Instincts came in here, and Harry encouraged Scott to not feel embarrassed if the urge overcame him to bump heads with another or just touch an arm or shoulder in conversation.

Using his own personal experience as examples, Harry eventually convinced Scott to understand that the others will probably think nothing of him suddenly pulling them into a hug or running his fingers through their hair. If anything, they would most likely have a similar instinct within them to reciprocate the contact and then continue as if there was nothing strange about what happened.

In other words, Harry told Scott to treat scents like perfume.

The more put on at one time, the longer it would last without needing to apply it a second time. Shorter contact would fade quicker and need to reapplied sooner rather than later. If Scott did not think on it too much, he would probably be able to go on autopilot and strengthen a bond when it would begin to weaken.

The second topic that Harry discussed was how to talk to other packs and alphas. Hearing everything about the trip to Arizona, Harry told Scott that he basically did everything correctly.

When first meeting a new pack, it should be more formal than casual. However, an alpha with a strong personality and a disregard for formalities will usually ignore protocols and act however they want.

In Scott's case, Harry urged him to be a polite and as official as possible in the beginning so that he could get the chance to see how the other alphas acted.

Since he was one of the more younger alphas out there, it would not hurt Scott to play nice to gain face with others. In a few years when he would be older and more familiar with the rules Harry had told him, would Scott then be able to act on his own discretion and instincts given whatever situation he was put into.

Another aspect of being an alpha that Harry realized Scott must have not known was the hierarchy. He explained to Scott that there was a bit of an order when it came to people in the pack. No one was better than another specifically, but there was obviously leader in the form of the alpha along with a right hand that was usually the closest beta to the alpha. And together, the two usually watched over and took care of the rest of the pack.

Harry told Scott how he assumed Liam was his because he had overheard the call in the car.

Scott thought it over and supposed it made sense, but he felt that something was off. Yes, Liam was his first beta and Scott knew he could trust him, but something was missing, and Liam would probably prefer to not hold a position as something so important.

There was no one else in Beacon Hills though, that Scott felt would fill the roll. For now, he told Harry that having the position empty was that best bet for now since there was no need to urgently have someone take up the position.

The beta nodded in acceptance.

The last subject Harry touched upon was the alpha's tattoo. He reminded Scott that when they had first met, he had noticed Scott because of his tattoo.

While he had recognized it as the McCall Pack symbol, he had not known that it was the alpha in front of Harry that day because all pack members usually get the mark ingrained onto them, not just the alpha.

The ginger then told Scott that he had assumed (like others that had spotted the mark throughout his months of travel) that his tattoo represented his pack a whole and not an individual mark that Scott got because he wanted one. Most werewolves only went through the hassle of getting burned once to represent something important like a pack symbol.

Scott recalled that the triskelion was the only mark Derek ever had on his body and he had worn it when his mother had still been the alpha and he was a beta to the Hale Pack.

Thinking upon it, Scott considered changing the meaning of his tattoo to represent the pack instead of a mark just for him.

The larger band could represent the pack, while the thinner line would be the individual that wore the mark. Together it showed that one who was in possession of the thin band would thus belong to the larger band by default. Represented as a circle, the thicker band would encase the thinner band, stating that the pack would always protect the individual as long as they were within the pack.

Scott felt happy with the idea and told as much to Harry. The beta loved it and agreed that the change was fitting, and the rest of the pack would appreciate it.

"Since you now know that everyone usually gets the mark, would it be alright if I got it?" Harry asked, enthused by what Scott just told him.

"Sure, if you really want to. I know you said that the entire pack usually gets it, but I still like that we are outside of the norm when it comes to being a werewolf pack. I mean, we're not all even werewolves in the first place. If the others don't want to do it, I wont pressure them so please don't try to push it onto them either."

"Of course Scott, I would never do that. You have my word."

Scott gave a nod in thanks. "By the way, if you don't mind me asking, did you have a pack mark while you were in Seattle? I don't want you to feel conflicted about having two different packs on you."

The older man gave a small sigh in remembrance, "Yes I did. However, when a pack is dissolved like mine was with the alpha gone and no one there to naturally step up to be the next leader, the mark fades. Our mark was a Poplar leaf and I had it right here," Harry said as he pointed to the right side of his ribcage. "I don't have anything on me now, but I would like to have yours if you'll let me so that I can show the world that I am a beta to Scott McCall."

In that moment, Scott could not have felt prouder of Harry and even himself since he had been able to convince the man to come home with him. "Yes Harry, a thousand times yes. I want you to take my mark if it means that much to you. Whatever will make you happy will make me happy. But now comes the most important question you will ever hear." Scott finished with a serious face.

"What is that?" Harry asked with a concerned look as he took in how grave Scott seemed.

Scott's face broke into a smirk having tricked Harry, "Where are you going to get it?"

Harry turned thoughtful, "I didn't that far ahead, actually."

"Well you don't have to decide right this moment. It's not like you need to get the tattoo today. You have all the time in the world to think it over to make sure it will be perfect."

Harry stared upward as places on the body popped in and out of his head. He did not even hear what Scott had said, he was so deep in thought.

He eventually shifted his gaze back to the man in front of him and he zeroed in on Scott's arm. Harry tilted his head in consideration when he finally spoke, "What about where you have it? Would that be okay? I don't know if your placement is something important to you."

Scott followed Harry's gaze and looked down to his own arm. "Nah, its place has no meaning. I just thought having a tattoo on my upper arm was really cool. You can get it there if you want."

"I do."

"Well then, it's decided." Scott said as he headed to the front door of the apartment. "Hey, what do you say we call it a day and go meet up with everyone. I want some ice-cream."

"Then afterwards you can torch me," Harry said with a grin as he joined Scott outside the door.

"I have to do it?"

"Of course!"

Scott simply shook his head in amusement as he locked the door and stepped outside with Harry and headed to his car.

"I guess I should have told you earlier but since some people around here know about us being more than normal humans, some places are more accommodating now. That includes the tattoo parlor. You can get what you want done from a professional either by the torch, or with the needle dipped in diluted wolf's bane."

"Really? That's interesting."

"Yup, so I don't have to be queasy while I tattoo you. Instead I get to be queasy while I watch from the sidelines."

"I thought you told me that Stiles was the one that fainted when you got inked up while you were fine," Harry asked as they got into the vehicle and started heading towards Liam's house where everyone had probably congregated while Scott and Harry had been together.

"True, but I never really looked while I got it done. Later, my mom decided to get an outline of a small wolf on her forearm right below the elbow and I went with her for support. Turns out that I don't like seeing others get ink done, who knew. I didn't faint like Stiles," Scott chuckled thinking about his best friend, "but I still had to look away. Mom never batted an eyelash from start to finish and when it was all done, all she said was, 'That's it?' it was awesome."

Harry laughed as he thought about Scott and his mother. It made sense that she had done that, she was an amazing and feisty woman. It was no wonder where Scott got his strength from.

"Well then I guess I'll have a pro do it. Can't have you messing up my tattoo, now can I?"

"Hey! You were the one that just said that I should do it, not me." He lightly shoved Harry's shoulder sideways in offence.

Harry shoved Scott back in retaliation but made to sure to be soft as to not disturb his driving, "Yeah but I thought it was my only option. It's not like I want some amateur with unsteady hands anywhere near me."

"I'll have you know I can have completely steady hands when the need arises."

"Gross."

"I didn't mean it like that! Don't put words into my mouth."

"Or anything else in your mouth."

"Whoa man, what happened to the reserved Harry?"

Harry just tilted his head back as he laughed. "He got more comfortable and relaxed."

"Well it's unfortunate that it took a month for him to feel like he could finally get there, but I'm glad he did," Scott said as he stole a glance sideways to see the older man completely leaned back in the seat with a gentle smile and a peaceful look in his eyes.

Scott looked forward with the same expression gracing his face. "C'mon. Let's go get the guys and then get that ice-cream."

**End Chapter 4**


	5. Twice Etched Rays

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, after almost whole month, here is the next chapter everyone!
> 
> Besides that, I also want to give another huge hank you to all my readers. It's been a little over 2 months and 4 chapters in since I started, and I have had a lot of hits! That blows my mind. Even if some of those people just checked out the first chapter and found this story was not their thing, I still enjoy the thought that so many people out there got to see some of my writing. Once again, thank you!

 

**Posted March 3, 2018 … Revised June 28, 2018**

**Inspired Song:[Timecop1983 – Bright Lights](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EdydtlynyY)**

 

.

.

"Wow, it looks the same as Scott's."

"No duh, Liam."

"Shut up Mason. I meant that the tattoo job was done the same. I know the idea is the same, but no two things are ever done exactly alike."

"Well then maybe you should have said that from the beginning."

"I did!"

Scott and Hayden rolled their eyes simultaneously at the two friends bickering over Harry's tattoo. The artist had just finished up, Harry and Scott had stepped back into the waiting area of the parlor where the pack waited to see the finished product.

.

.

After picking up the group from Liam's house, Harry had been all too happy to tell everyone about what he had been teaching Scott. More specifically, he told them what tattoo marks usually meant in packs and that he planned to get Scott's mark on himself after a quick stop for ice-cream.

Excited about what he was going to have by the end of the day, Harry stressed to everyone that they could stop at the local ice-cream parlor, but they were not going to be sitting in like they usually did. Instead, they would all get it to go so that Harry would be able to receive his tattoo quicker.

"Calm it old man," Hayden teased as she put a hand on Harry's shoulder to slow him down, "You'll get what you want, I'll make sure of it, but if you make me speed up the delicate process that is known as flavor picking, then you will be in a whole world of trouble," she finished with the sweetest smile on her face as her strict voice betrayed her façade.

Harry gave a weak laugh as he finally calmed down.

Everyone knew how much Hayden loved every time they decided to go to  _Charlie's Treats_. If one did not want to get on her bad side, it was known that it would be best to leave her be once she entered and started making her decisions about flavor, toppings, and size.

Harry was antsy since he simply wanted to get his tattoo as soon as possible, but he loved the place as much as the rest of the pack. Harry found himself happily took his time in the shop to find the perfect combination to go along with his waffle cone. Plus, who could ever refuse the chance to get a cold treat on a warm summer day.

Afterwards, the pack was eager to go along with Scott and Harry to the tattoo parlor so that the older beta could finally get his wish.

When he and Scott went into the back room with the artist, Harry sat down and was no afraid to ask about the two options he could get for the tattoo to be placed on him after he smelled the familiar odor on the beefy tattooist that told Harry he was a fellow werewolf. The balding man offered the pros and cons to the torch and needle method, saying that the torch was more painful, but more effective in the end, while the diluted wolf's bane let the artist be more steady and detailed since he would be using the traditional needle. He let Harry decide as he left to collect sterilizing supplies in the back.

Thinking it was his only option at first, Harry had already come to terms with having an open flame mark his skin, but now know that there was a relatively easier option, he was reconsidering. However, what he wanted were two simple thick lines, so small detail was not necessary in this case.

The more he thought about it though, the more obvious it seemed to Harry which option he should go with.

.

.

It did not take too long before he came out from the back with Scott and with his sleeve rolled up, showing everyone the two dark lines that were placed upon him exactly where Scott's was. With no need to cover the open wound since his healing powers took care of that right away, everyone knew that Harry was just happy that he was able to show off what was now a part of him.

The group stood up to gather around him, and they all loved everything about it. Seeing a second member of the pack proudly wearing the two bands seemed to ignite a spark in the rest of them.  _If Scott changed the meaning to represent the pack, maybe I should get it as well,_ most of them thought.

"It looks great Harry," Malia said.

"Thanks! I'm so happy with how perfect if turned out."

"Which process did you decide to go with?"

"The torch. It's all I ever heard about before Scott told me it could be done differently, and I guess I just wanted to stick with what I knew. Besides you can consider it the more traditional practice now plus I just wanted to do what Scott did," Harry finished with the smallest blush dusting his cheeks.

Everyone continued to look over the new mark and comment about how good it looked on him.

Liam and Corey especially were intrigued about getting the tattoo now. They both liked the idea of showing off that they finally were old enough to get one, while also elated at the concept of being able to show off that they belonged somewhere.

Scott spotted them eyeing up both his and Harry's arm with a serious look upon their faces. He asked them if they wanted to get it too and that he would be happy with the two of them, whether they decided to get it or not.

Both declined to get it done with a quick shake of their heads. Neither of them wanted to get it done  _that_  day, but it certainly would not leave their thoughts any time soon.

.

.

"Hey Scott, if those two lines are supposed to represent our pack, what do they mean?" Liam asked from his position on the floor in front of the large television.

It was a few days later that the pack had gathered at Scott and Malia's house for their usual Saturday get together. They usually went over to Melissa's, but the woman wanted a break from all the noise and the cleaning she would have to do after they all left, so for now, they relocated to the young couples flat.

"What do you mean? I thought I already said that the one wearing it is protected by the pack as long as they are part of the pack." Scott replied, unsure what Liam was getting at.

"No not like that, I meant I want to know what the symbol is, is what I guess I'm trying to say. Harry said his previous pack had been a leaf and the Hales was the Triskelion. I'm just wondering what the two bands together is supposed to represent. I don't want to always be referring to the pack mark as 'two black lines'. Ours should be a symbol too."

Everyone stared at Liam as he fell silent. They agreed with what he said and almost in sync, everyone turned to Scott to hear what he would say.

The alpha stared off to the side as he absentmindedly moved two fingers in the pattern of the two circles (like he had done in the dirt with Stiles) across the arm of the couch he sat on. His silence stretched as he thought about a symbol the lines could look like. He finally looked to Liam to see him still staring at Scott, waiting for a reply.

"I don't really know. I would like it to have meaning like you said, but I just don't have anything right now."

Reluctantly nodding in acceptance, Liam turned back to the screen where he and Mason had been playing a racing game.

Everyone else went back to whatever they had been doing before until it was just Malia staring at Scott from across the living room where she sat curled up on the single recliner. He raised a brow in question and she just rolled her eyes as she stood up and walked over to the long couch where he sat at one end and Hayden at with her legs stretched out, taking up the middle of the sofa.

Malia nudged Hayden's feet with one of her own to make room for herself next to Scott. From the other end of the couch, Hayden pulled her feet to her quickly as a giggle escaped her from the tickling sensation. When she sat down, Malia grabbed Hayden's ankles to stretch her legs back out to her original position and let them lay across her lap as she turned to Scott, giving him her undivided attention while Hayden went back to reading her magazine.

"I thought you told me a while back that the lines reminded you of something."

"I did?"

"Yeah, you said it looked kind of like a sun. You don't remember?"

Scott once again looked to the side in thought as his brow furrowed just slightly. "Yeah, I guess I kind of do. But it was just a passing thought since I had been doodling the circles a lot that day."

"Yeah, but it works. Don't you think?"

"It does?"

"Totally. The center circle is the actual sun and the outer ring is like a ray of light radiating off. It's simple and beautiful and I think it would fit our pack perfectly."

Scott stared at Malia in thought for a few moments before a grin started to form on his face. Malia mimicked him and leaned forward for a quick peck on the lips.

"Now what do you think?"

"Yeah, I really like that; A sun. You hear that Liam?" Scott raised his voice as he turned to Liam and Mason. Mason turned his head in reaction to Scott's voice and Liam gave a shout in victory as he raced into first place from the distraction. Mason gave a shout in denial as he turned back to his best friend and Liam whooped in joy with arms raised above his head.

He finally put his controller down as he turned to give Scott his attention as Mason glowered behind him, "Sorry, what did you say Scott?"

"I said that I know what our symbol can be. Malia reminded me that I had thought about this a while ago and now that I remembered. I really like it and I think it's what you are looking for."

"Well then tell us, we're dying here!" Liam dramatically said as he crawled across the living room rug to sit in front of Scott.

Hayden stretched her foot from where it was on Malia's lap to wiggle her toes close to Liam's face, "You're the only one that was  _dying_  to want a pack symbol."

He tried to swat away the toes as he scrunched his nose at the proximity, "Sure, but you want to know too, I know you all are just as curious as me."

"Guys, it's not like it was supposed to be some big reveal, I was just telling Liam since he was curious about it. And now that you're all looking at me, I'm kinda doubting it's a good one anymore."

"We'll be the judge of that." Mason said as he, Corey, and Harry sat down next to Liam on the rug. Everyone nodded their head in agreement with Mason.

"Well, what about the sun?" Scott made sure to make eye contact with everyone to see their reaction to the idea. He saw everyone with a look of consideration painted upon their faces as they all individually looked away in thought.

"I was just telling Scott that it would be like the sun in the center with a ray surrounding it. What do you guys think?" Malia decided to add in the silence.

"I like it." Hayden was the first to speak up. When everyone turned to look at her, she continued, "I think it fits us like how the sun is this warm thing that we all need to survive and now it means that our pack is also a warm place that we hold close to us. When we feel sad or any other emotion that could be considered 'cold', all we need to do it think of our source of light and warmth, like the pack, then all will be good."

"Wow, that was poetic as hell and very beautiful, Hayden," Harry reached over to give her a side hug in appreciation.

"Harry's right Hayden, that was awesome. And now I can picture it better and I think that having our pack symbol be the sun is perfect." Corey replied.

Mason and Liam nodded in agreement, "You took the words right out of my mouth," Mason said.

"When you think about it, there are a few other cool reasons that the sun thing is pretty fitting for us," Harry spoke up after releasing Hayden from his hug, "like how people sometimes call the sun a beacon of light that shines upon our world and we live in Beacon Hills. Or that we live in California that is on the West Coast which is where the sun sets every day. Or my favorite," Harry starts with a silly grin on his face as he looks at everyone to gain their attention, "that out alpha is a son. Get it? A sun and a son?"

"Ugh!' Everyone except Malia groaned and rolled their eyes at the pun.

Mason leaned back at the joke as though trying to move away from Harry and the bad pun. He eventually fell onto the floor and put his hands up to his face in frustration. Liam started laughing at his reaction knowing that he would sometimes say lame puns around his best friend and was probably fed up with the jokes. Corey started laughing along with Liam and fell back next to his boyfriend to console him in a sugary sweet and mocking tone.

Scott chuckled at the joke and reactions of his pack, "Yeah, I guess your right about those things too. Well, its settled then. If everyone likes the sun idea, then I guess that what it will be from now on."

Everyone gave their own agreements and that was the end of it. From then on, their symbol would become synonymous with the sun and people from all around would soon learn what it meant to be a member of the sunny McCall pack.

.

.

A month passed, and it was nearing the end of September. Autumn classes started up for everyone which caused most of the pack to lose most of their free time to gather together for fun.

Even their usual weekend gatherings had to regularly be postponed as several of them wound up busy from studying, working, or they were simply too tired to do anything but sleep with whatever free hours they had.

It was not fun to be busy so much, but everyone accepted that gathering everyone was simply too much right now. It did not however, stop a few of them gathering occasionally for a few hours of going out for meals or visiting the theater occasionally.

It was on a weekday that two of pack members had time off from their respective responsibilities. Scott and Liam were at Scott's apartment watching one of their favorite shows while indulging in a few unhealthy snacks.

An episode had just finished and before Scott could reach over to start the next one, Liam snagged the remote from the coffee table and paused the screen.

Turning to look at him, Scott was surprised to see how serious the beta was as he gave Scott his full attention.

"What's up?" Scott asked in the silence.

"Do you remember a month ago when Harry got his tattoo?"

"Kind of hard not since I was there but…"

Liam gave an unimpressed look before he spoke again, "And do you remember that I was thinking about getting one myself?" Scott just gave a silent nod in agreement. "Well I've been thinking about it again."

"And?"

"And I want to get it. Like Harry and you. I know you said that you wouldn't care either way since our pack is already different that we don't need to follow rules about what we can and can't do to our bodies, but I really want to do this. You've saved me Scott. I know when you bit me all those years ago-"

"Hey, don't say it like that. It makes me feel old and like I bit you over a decade ago!' Scott said as tried to lighten the serious mood that had settled between them.

Liam could tell what he was doing and just smiled with an eye roll, "Anyways, like I was saying, you bit me a few years back now, and while I know it was an accident, you still took me in afterwards. I'm your first beta and I know that it was also hard for you to come to terms with it just like me. We've gone through a lot over the years and I can never see myself leaving you. It doesn't seem like such a stretch to the imagination that I would want to mark myself with something this important to you and in turn, me."

"Liam…" Scott was at a loss for words. He knew that he and Liam had been close ever since he bit him, but they had gotten the chance to learn more about one another ever since then and now they were practically brothers like he and Stiles were.

Scott reached across the couch and pulled him to his chest. He was quick to wrap his arms around Liam's shoulders as he stuffed his face in the light brown hair. As he inhaled the mix of Liam's scent and shampoo, he felt his beta wrap his own arms around Scott's waist and plant his face in the crook his neck.

They sat in silence as they just held each other.

Scott didn't want to talk because he felt it might break the spell, but also because he was beginning to feel a bit emotional and didn't want to hear his own voice come out shaky. Even though Liam could probably smell his emotions.

Still, they eventually broke apart.

"I don't really know what to say to all of that."

"What about that you're okay with it?" Liam tried to say in a casual manner as though he did not care what Scott would say, but as his alpha and brother, Scott knew that Liam was genuinely uncertain about this conversation and was relying on Scott's approval to go forward with the tattoo idea.

"Like I told you and Corey back at the parlor, you can do whatever you want. I will always be by your side with approval to whatever you chose to get or not to get. I know you're looking for an outright 'yes' or 'no' here, but I honestly can't do that to you, Liam. I won't decide for you. That's all on you."

Liam bit his lip in consideration. He finally looked back to his alpha and with a determined look upon his face, he said he was going to get it done. It was that important to him.

Scott asked Liam if he was planning to get it done as soon as possible like Harry had done, but Liam said no. He wanted it just as much as the other beta, but he was willing to wait a bit to make sure he was not running into something so quickly – even though he was almost one-hundred percent certain he was going to get it done.

With the deep conversation done with, the two were happy to turn back to the paused show. Liam started the next episode and they happily settled back into the center of the couch, their shoulders pressed together as they pulled up their feet and placed a bowl of popcorn in between them.

.

.

Malia was working her morning shift at the café that Danny Māhealani owned,  _Just a Sip_. She hated the mornings due to the usual crowds that scrambled inside to get cups of the holy drink known as coffee. While she herself also liked to indulge in the drink, she would never turn into some rabid animal just to order a single cup of the stuff from a shop when she could just make her own pot at home – and she knows what it's like to be a rabid animal.

Fortunately, it was a getting closer to lunch, which meant the crowds were thinning and her shift would be ending soon.

She did not pay much attention to the time since her mind was slightly occupied as she wiped down a table and headed into the back to place the dishes in the sink.

Yesterday, she had stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few items before going home, when she saw that Liam was working. It was nothing unusual since he had been there for almost an entire year now and they crossed paths on more than one occasion, but it was what had been on him that caused Malia to pause in the middle of heading towards him.

As she had walked up to his register so that he could ring her up, he had raised his hand to wave a greeting. She saw that he had also gotten the packs symbol as a tattoo. It was on his right arm, as opposed to Scott and Harry having it on their left, but it was on the same place of the bicep.

She had said hello back to him as she placed her items on the belt and let the younger beta start small talk with her as he rang and bagged the items.

"I see you got the mark," she finally said as she waited for her change.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. I talked to Scott about it and I wound up getting it," he finished with a shrug as he opened the register.

All she did was nod her head. She felt that there was nothing left to say; it looked good on him. He was acting like getting it was not that big of a deal, so Malia thought it best to not grill him with so many questions.

That scene at the grocery store had only been yesterday, but it kept going over in her head and thus, as soon as her shift was over, Malia headed over to the Clinic where Scott was probably due start his own job soon. The brunette hoped she could get there before he had to clock in so that they could talk while her thoughts were still fresh in her mind.

Luck was on her side for as soon as she parked in front of the clinic, Scott was just stepping out his own car. He saw her arrive and he headed for her instead of entering the building.

He smiled as he kissed her in greeting, saying that he was surprised by the visit, but curious as to why she was there.

"It's just – I saw Liam yesterday," was all she could get out of her mouth.

He just gave her a strange look, not understanding what she meant, "Okay?"

"I saw that he also got the tattoo on his arm. It looks good on him." She turned away from Scott's gaze at the last few words, feeling awkward about the conversation now and not completely knowing what came over her to come talk to her boyfriend and alpha about it.

"Really? Wow, that was kinda quick. He told me that he was going to get it done on his own time, but I didn't know that he would just go on and do it without any of us there with him."

"He told me that he talked to you about it, so I guess that means you're okay with it…" She trailed off again, struggling to name the emotion that was building up in her from the entire situation.

"Of course I am. You were there when I talked about it at our house a few weeks ago, and even at the tattoo place when Harry got it done. You guys can do whatever you want with the symbol. Sure, I like the idea of having an actual mark that defines us now, but I don't care about all that traditional crap. Don't put anything on you that you're not sure about."

Malia just stared at him after he finished talking. The strange emotion was still there in her chest, but she was not sure how to vocalize it let alone understand what it was. At least, not until Scott spoke again as he gave her a once over with an interested look on his face.

"Are you asking because you want it too?"

She was about to deny it but caught herself at the last moment as her lips thinned. Is that what she was feeling in her chest? Was the tight sensation envy? Was this her wanting to fit in with the others and proudly show off that she belonged somewhere?

When Malia finally looked back up at Scott, all she saw was a curious look on his face while his eyes shined with the barest hint of worry at her silence.

"I don't know, really. I guess that maybe I do since it's all I could think about for a while now. I know that I helped you come up with the symbol being a sun and all, and I'm happy that we have something like the Hales and Harry's old pack, but I didn't think that I would also want to wear it as much as I do right now."

"Well, like I told Harry and Liam, you do what you want and get it whenever you want. You can change your mind at any time, and I won't care, babe." He leaned in for another kiss as an end to the conversation. "Look, I got to get to work. I'm glad that I got to see before I have to spend the next hours in cat hell, but I'll see you when I get home?"

She gave a sarcastic smile, "Alright, have fun. I'll worry about dinner, so you don't have to."

With that, the two separated with Scott heading into the clinic and Malia home to start thinking about their evening meal.

In similar fashion to Liam, Malia went and got the tattoo on her own time when no one was the wiser. In fact, it was almost an entire 24 hours later before anyone even noticed that she had it.

Malia decided to get it one weekday morning when Scott had already left to head to the clinic for his practical part of college work. She was not trying to be sneaky about it, but she was not necessarily broadcasting what she was planning to go out and do.

It was the typical busy day for everyone, so it was understandable that no one had the time that day to meet up with her at any point to see what she now proudly wore.

In fact, Scott was out for the entire day that when he finally got home, it was already pitch dark outside. When he opened the door, he was greeted to the smell of tomato sauce and heard his girlfriend's voice greeting him from inside the kitchen.

He walked in to see that spaghetti was on the menu and he got a look at her profile from the right as she was stirring a pot on the stove. She acted casual as she turned off the burner and grabbed the plates on the counter. The young couple worked around each other like a well-oiled machine as they grabbed spaghetti noodles from one pot and sauce form the other, took cups from the cupboard, and filled them with water from the pitcher in the fridge.

It was only when they finally sat down at the table and Scott could look across to her, that he saw the two black bands wrapped around her left forearm, right below the elbow.

Malia noticed his look, lifted her arm to let him see better, and simply went back to eating like she had had it all along.

She did not need to say a single word and neither did he.

.

.

The next few months passed by and the hot summer air was slowly replaced by a chill. Once again, the pack followed their regular schedules and found the occasional moments to finally be able to have fun and be a pack. Everyone noticed that almost half of the pack now held their symbol as tattoo, but no one really spoke about it.

In fact, almost all pack members did not know that they all went to Scott individually at one point before making their decision, except for Malia. It was not a complete stretch for each member to assume that Liam and Malia just up and got the mark on a whim.

Thus, it was a bit of surprise for Scott to see that Corey now had the mark as well since the younger man had never come to Scott to talk about it. Then again, Scott thought to himself, he did not care that Corey had not come to him. He would have just sounded like a broken record as he would have told him the same things he had told Harry, Liam, and Malia.

No one look surprised in the slightest as they all were slowing coming to realization that they all wanted the mark, but each had their own pace to think it through to finally come to that decision.

When Corey came late that day to their gathering, it was not hard to miss the little black bands that wrapped around his left wrist, but it was also not that hard to breeze over it since it was almost expected that everyone would eventually proudly wear it. Everyone was happy to see Corey with the bands that day; everyone except Mason.

A while back, Mason and Liam had gone out one day as just the two of them.

It had been a while since the best friends had gone out alone and they had finally found the time to do it. It had only been a few days after Liam got the tattoo, and he was still proudly flaunting it as he chose to wear a tank top that afternoon.

Mason did not care that his best friend had the mark, but he always rolled his eyes whenever Liam would start talking again about how happy he was that he got it and that Scott approved.

Yes, Mason was sure that he did not care that Liam had the mark and he did not.

And of course, Mason had spotted Corey eyeing up everyone that had the bands, like he was envious of them. Mason would never ask his boyfriend to not get the mark, but he was secretly happy that he had not decided to get it yet. If he did, then Mason would be stuck as one of the last people in their group who did not have the bands.

If Corey got the tattoo, it would just be Mason and Hayden as the last two with untouched skin.

There was also the lingering thought that since Liam had just gotten the tattoo, Hayden might finally get it done as well to follow her boyfriend, her pseudo uncle Harry, and her alpha Scott.

It was all simply too much for Mason and the more he thought about it, the more worried he became. He did not like that he would be the only one who was free of ink on his body.

It was then a few days later then, as Mason had hoped against, Corey got the mark and the dark-skinned male did not know how to feel. It was especially hard because Corey never told him that he was going to get it. It was just as much of a surprise to him as it was to everyone else when Corey walked in late that evening with the ink on his wrist.

Mason felt hurt that he was in the dark about it, but he could also see that it was not completely needed for Corey to talk to him first about coming to a decision that would ultimately be on his own body. It did not mean however, that Mason was not hurt and angry that his boyfriend just woke up one day and decided to get a tattoo with such a powerful meaning and not even say one word to him about it.

After everyone caught a glimpse of Corey's wrist, they all simply went back to their own business.

But not Mason. He stared his boyfriend down as he stepped into the living room and walked over to where he was seated at one of the single chairs. Corey tried to greet him with their regular kiss as he leaned down to Mason's level, but Mason simply turned his head at the last second so that Corey just got the corner of his lips. As he twisted his head, he spotted Scott just turning his own head in their direction from the conversation he was having with Harry and Hayden, and the alpha spotted the end of the awkward greeting.

Flushing in embarrassment of the situation, Mason stood up and headed to the bathroom. Corey tried to catch his attention to ask what was wrong, but he ignored the other male and entered the bathroom and locked the door, clearly telling Corey that he wanted to be alone.

He braced his arms on the edges of the counter and leaned forward to better see himself in the mirror in front of him.

His reflection told him that he looked angry, but his eyes showed his sadness. Which in turn shifted to anger and frustration as well because he did not know why he was sad in the first place.

Trying to splash cold water on his face to cool himself down, Mason eventually left the bathroom and headed for the front door. Everyone was having a good time and he was not. Mason did not want to bring the whole mood down just because he felt off about his boyfriend getting a tattoo.

Mason did not try to sneaky as he left, but he knew that no one would stop him if he really wanted to get out of there so soon. He was not surprised when the front door opened a few seconds after he exited and Corey was soon walking in step with him along the sidewalk.

It was silent for a while as Mason was still letting the last of his anger dissipate and Corey did not want to interrupt the silence until he thought it was the best time.

"What's wrong, babe?"

"Nothing."

"Well, it didn't seem like nothing back in there," Corey sounded calm as he tried to fish for details about his boyfriend's current mood.

"Well it may be 'nothing'," Mason started as he used his fingers to air quote the word, "but it sure as hell is something I don't know the word to and don't want to talk about right now."

Mason finished speaking with a small huff and hunched his shoulders as he started walking at a quicker pace. Corey was startled at the move and lagged for a moment before he moved to try to keep up, "Do you want me to leave you alone then?"

Stopping, Mason turned to Corey with a face that held a mix of emotions. He simply stared at Corey before reaching for his hand and tugged him to his side before he started walking again.

"No, I don't want you to leave, but I still don't want to talk. Let's just walk around for a bit so I can clear my head."

"And then we can talk?" Corey said with a hopeful tone.

Side glancing him, Mason kept a straight face as he gave a maybe.

They did not talk on their stroll, but they did eventually make it back to the house where everyone was still hanging out. Thankfully, no one questioned them too much about what happened before they left the house, and they all went back to having a good time.

At the end of the get together when everyone was slowly trickling out to go home, Scott pulled Mason aside. He told the younger man that he was always there to talk to everyone when the felt like they needed to vent and get things off their shoulders. He also told Mason that Corey had come to him some time later in the night when Mason was otherwise occupied. Corey had not given specifics, mostly because Mason did not tell him anything anyways, but he did tell Scott that he was worried about how Mason felt about the tattoo since logically, that was the only new thing that happened tonight and was the probable source of his bad mood.

If Mason did not feel like speaking to Liam or Corey, Scott said he would always be there to give an unbiased viewpoint and be either a good listener or talker should Mason need it. The younger man gave a grateful smile to Scott before he left with Corey to head to their own shared apartment.

That night as he laid in bed, Mason considered what Scott offered.

He turned to look at Corey's sleeping face and gave a sigh at how calm he looked. Making the decision, he turned the other way, grabbing his phone from the nightstand and sent a short text to Scott, telling him that he would take the alpha up on his offer to talk about anything and everything with an unbiased view.

It was only a few moments later that Mason remembered it was currently 3 a.m. and way too late to be texting anyone. He felt bad about doing that to Scott but was surprised to see his phone light up with a reply so quickly.

From Scott McCall – 3:03 a.m. –  _Of course! Goodnight Mason :)_

Mason slowly shook his head in amusement. Even at this hour, Scott was still so kind and caring. Happy with his choice now, Mason turned his phone back off and turned to face Corey and saw that he had turned the other way. Mason pulled the other male closer to him so that he could hug him and warm himself up as he too drifted off to sleep.

.

.

When Mason awoke the next day, he stared up at the ceiling for a few moments as he remembered what happened the day before and that he and Scott planned to meet up today. As he got up to get ready for the day, Mason texted Scott a reminder and to ask where they were going to meet up.

The other replied saying that he was thinking of either of their two places to have some privacy but if Mason was up to it, they could go eat at some diner.

Making up his mind, Mason suggested going over to Scott's house. He wanted to talk about the pack and did not any nosey people trying to listen in or even worse, having one of the pack appear out of nowhere and listen in too.

After a quick shower, he headed over to the other's apartment, just telling Corey that he wanted to talk to Scott about something. He did not specify to his boyfriend, but he knew it was not too hard to figure what he wanted to talk to the alpha about and just let Corey connect the dots on his own.

Once he arrived and settled in across the table from Scott, he dug into his pancakes while he tried to think of how he wanted to start the conversation.

He stole a glance at Scott to see him eating his own meal, completely engrossed in the food as he let Mason have a moment to gather his thoughts.

Scott finally looked up to him and saw the lost look on the others face. Instead of letting the other try to talk, Scott thought it best if he started rolling the conversation, hoping it would make it easier to Mason to say what he wanted without worry of how he should say it.

"So Corey talked to me – but you already knew that. Anyways, he thinks your 180 mood-change yesterday was because he got his tattoo and I think so too. I don't know if it was because he got a tattoo in general or if you don't like the one he got." Mason simply looked at Scott with a blank look on his face as though he thought it was obvious which one was the answer.

Mason's face finally grew emotion at the last sentence when his face shifted into one of frustration. "I don't care that he got a tattoo, but what I hated about last night was that I didn't know he got it until last night like the rest of you guys."

"Because he's your boyfriend?"

"Yes! I know that it's kind of douche-y of me that I wanted him to tell me something like this since it is  _his_  body, but I guess I'm also angry because of what the tattoo is."

"You don't like the pack mark?"

"No, I do like the mark, but, I don't know. I guess I was just never a tattoo kind of person. It's become this big deal now that if you're cool, you get a tattoo. It's all about that individuality and artistic expression stuff. Anyways, now you all have this mark somewhere on you that ties you together, and now I'm left all alone. I don't want to ink myself, but it kind of feels like I need to so that I'm not pushed away or left behind."

"Mason…" Scott trailed off not knowing what to say. He liked to think he was close to everyone in the pack after all this time, but even the alpha could admit that he and Mason were a little lacking in the closeness department.

He wanted to reach over the comfort the other but felt a bit awkward about it and did not want to weird out the other. Seeing the look on his face though, he chanced reaching across the table to pat his hand on one of Mason's.

Scott was relieved to see that Mason did not pull away from the contact.

"I know that it can feel like some sort of pressure, but I promise you that no one else will care that you don't want to get the tattoo. I mean, I talked to Harry, Liam, and Malia before they went to get theirs and they were worried that the rest of you would think it was weird or selfish of them to get it in the first place. I can promise that they will not all of a sudden turn around and say that you need to get the mark just so you can stay as part of the pack."

The last few words seemed to cause the younger man to slightly flinch. Scott noticed.

"Mason? What's wrong?"

"Nothing, it's just… I don't really know if I  _am_ part of the pack."

Scott was shocked. Not part of the pack? How could he say that?  _Why_  would he say that?

"What do you mean by that?"

Mason just gave a slight shrug in response. "It's just, everyone else is some creature. And I'm this human that was the best friend to a guy that got bitten. I feel like I was this weird third wheel that is now technically a seventh wheel to all you supernatural people. I'm just a human in this pack and I feel like I'm not really allowed to get the mark."

"I thought you said you didn't want to get it?"

"Yeah, but I'm talking about if I  _did_ want it, you guys would say I couldn't."

"I think I get what you mean. And about what you said about being 'just' a human, did you forget all about Stiles? He is as human as they come and he's definitely part of this pack. Lydia too. She's technically a Banshee, but besides her screams and the creepy death thing she does, she's still a human with human healings and a human appetite."

Mason understood what Scott was saying and had begun to move his head in agreement with what he was hearing, but still tried to argue against himself, "Yeah, but he's your best friend. I'm the best friend of a teen you bit. Doesn't exactly compare."

"Hey don't say that. Yes, I can agree that the two of us are probably one of the odder pairs when it comes to everyone in the pack, but that doesn't mean I don't see you and appreciate that you are a part of this crazy group. You're one of the more smart and level-headed people around here. I need you or else I would probably lose my mind having to take care of Liam all by myself. Honestly, the others are almost as bad him too."

"Thanks." Mason said with a small chuckle. He understood that Scott was trying to shift the mood and was thankful for it. He hated a gloomy atmosphere.

The older man quickly changed his smiling face to a serious one as he looked at Mason, "Is that the real reason why you don't want the tattoo?"

"What do you mean?"

"Let me ask you this question Mason, and I really want you to think about it. I don't want you answering me right away. You need to take your time. Got it?"

"Sure," Mason replied with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Do you not want to get this tattoo because you don't want to permanently mark your skin, or do you feel like you don't deserve it because you're a human who thinks he doesn't belong in a werewolf pack?"

Mason was stumped. He was about to ignore Scott's request and just outright say he did not like tattoos in general but stopped himself. He moved his hand away from where Scott had placed his on top as he shifted back in his seat until his back touched the chair.

It was an interesting question and now Mason was doubting himself.

Did he not want the mark because he was  _human_?

It sounded ridiculous, but now he was not so sure. When he saw Harry with the mark, he had just thought it looked good on him. So what if two people had the same tattoo. It was not uncommon for people to do that, but it was usually done by a couple or family members. Still, Mason did not think it was weird that the two had the same thing.

Then Liam got it. He could understand why, even if Mason disagreed with it.

The other male had told him that he was getting it because he belonged in the pack and would never leave Scott's side. Mason was a firm believer in the phrase "Never say never" so he struggled with seeing it from Liam's perspective. As his best friend, he had done his duty by giving him his advice about the phrase, but in the end, Mason knew that he had to let his friend make his own decision.

And he did, when Mason next saw him with the mark clearly etched into his arm.

Malia was next, and in general, Mason thought nothing of it seeing as she could do whatever she wanted. Yet, it was still another person in the pack following along with the others. It felt like it was another wall being built between himself and the rest of them.

Then he saw Corey last night. He clearly seemed happy about what he did and  _that_  was what made Mason angry and sad. His boyfriend was happy to get the mark and happy to show everyone that this was where he belonged.

He was not angry that his boyfriend did not talk to him, but he was angry for Corey. From Mason's perspective, it looked like Corey was just doing this to fit in more with everyone else and now he would always have that mark on him. Mason was not sad about his boyfriend leaving him in the dust to be one of the last with no mark, but he was sad  _for_ Corey. Mason had been sad at the thought of Corey getting the mark and then one day leaving the pack for one reason or another. Corey would then have the mark on him as a horrible reminder of what he once had.

But now, Mason could see that he was wrong. Those emotions had some merit, it was true, but he could now see that he had thought too harshly and quickly about everything in general. Corey was welcomed by everyone in the pack. He had no reason to try and prove his worth. Him getting the tattoo was for his own benefit and no one else's.

Seeing everyone with the same thing on them hurt, but it was not like it was the complete end of the world.

Sure, Mason would have felt left out – and he might have even tried to leave the pack if he felt like there was too much of a gap between him and everyone else – but he would feel even worse if he forced himself to permanently mark his skin just to fit in.

Mason was finding that these things were not the reason he did not want to get a tattoo. No McCall pack mark, or any other thing would feel right on him. Everyone else could get as many tattoos on them as they wanted, and Mason now knew that he would always decline to get one of his own.

Yes, a small part of him would probably always connect his lack of any ink on himself to being human, but if he reminded himself what the word 'permanent' meant, he felt he would be just fine. With his internal conflict over with, he finally looked back to up see Scott just staring at him as he leaned over his empty plate.

"I don't want it."

"Okay."

Scott's reply came so fast and unexpected that Mason stuttered a bit as the defense he was ready to give slipped away from his lips.

"Okay? Just like that?"

"Of course 'just like that'. Mason, you don't need to get a tattoo if you don't want one. I asked you that question to be sure, but honestly, I'm not all that surprised with your response. You are usually confident in yourself, so to think that you were worried about not fitting in just because of two lines was a bit odd to me. I know now with practically everyone else having one can probably feel like some sort of pressure, but You. Don't. Need. One. Got it?

"We are pack.  _We._  Not just me and Liam, not just Hayden and Malia, and not just me and Harry. Me and you are pack together. I really mean that, Mason and I don't want you feeling left out or thinking that you do not belong right here with the rest of us. You are a human of the McCall pack and I don't want you thinking otherwise. Got it?"

All he could do was dumbly nod his head at how sure Scott sounded.

"Good. I'm glad we're on the same page about that."

A silence descended after that. It was a little tense since neither knew what to say, but not horribly awkward. In the end, Scott stood up to put his plate in the sink.

As he sat down again, he looked over to Mason, "So, what else did you want to talk about?"

"Uh, besides all that, not much. I just had the whole 'tattoo thing' on my mind that nothing else is coming to me."

"Well, that's alright. Just come talk to me when you do think of anything else to say. From now on when you need someone besides your best friend and your boyfriend to talk about anything and everything, you come find me. Promise?"

"I promise." Mason gave a small grateful smile as he looked upon his alpha.

**End Chapter 5**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here was chapter 5 for you guys. I wanted some of the pack to get the rebranded McCall mark as a tattoo, and that's how this chapter was basically formed. I don't think that everyone in the pack will eventually get the mark since these characters are like real people with all kinds of different personalities.
> 
> I also thought it would be a fun idea to have a conflict with Mason since everyone has their own ideas about tattoos in general and the permanent-ness of them. With Mason being one of the humans in the pack, I thought that this made sense. I know that not everyone likes tattoos in general and I don't want to write about people having the same thing. That just gets boring. So that was how I thought up a situation where this conflict could happen.
> 
> Hope it was an interesting read for you all.


	6. Need You Closer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the unexpected hiatus. Life happens, you know how it is. I want to say some stuff at the end of this chapter, so please stick around and read it if you can.
> 
> As a way of an apology, I thought it would be fun to upload two chapters back to back. I'm thinking maybe do a three-day interval? Just as sort of a treat for everyone that has been patiently waiting to see more of this story.
> 
> Also, even if you don't typically check out the Inspired Songs that I add, I would really recommend this one. It is kind of different and very retro nostalgia, but I just adore this song!

**Inspired Song:[Absinth3 – Long Island Ft. Kaye Kierman](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOz8CRjgeoE)**

.

.

A while after Mason talked to Scott, he felt as though a weight had been lifted off his shoulders. Without the worry of being left behind and irrational fear of being kicked out of the pack, he found himself happily falling back into his regular schedule.

As for the rest of the pack, they were quick on the uptake to notice that Mason seemed happier and all made sure to talk to him to give their own two cents about how Mason belonged and did not need to have the mark. Mason had been flustered at the attention and had even tried to glare a Scott for gossiping about their conversation, but he was surprised to see that Scott was just a confused and that was when Mason remembered that they were a pack who probably knew when one of their own was feeling down. Well, it was either that or some type of freaky mind-link, Mason thought.

Mason was not completely sure about how accurate that last thought was, but he had fun imagining a screaming Liam or Corey as they were in the bathroom and suddenly, the rest of the pack were trying to spy on them with their weird powers.

Regardless, another month soon passed.

Mason was out shopping for a birthday gift for his mother when an amazing thought came to him. As he looked at the displayed of jewelry in front of him, he had the idea that he would be able to proudly wear the pack mark on him like everyone else. Looking at the different types of necklaces and rings, he decided that he could wear the mark instead of putting it on his body. He was part of the pack after all, even if that took some convincing from Scott, and Mason felt that he also deserved to have the McCall symbol displayed on himself if he wanted it.

Looking at a some of the styles of necklaces, Mason found himself liking none and slowly drifted to the rings.

He eventually came across a ring with two thin bands welded together and a type of flat circle-like base that rested on top. It was plain and the type of thing that Mason had been thinking about. Seeming like a perfect match to what he had in mind, he asked the jeweler about the ring and how to customize it.

Mason eventually walked away from the store with a smile and two purchases made. One for his beautiful mother and the second for himself. Hers was a lovely ring with a modestly sized gem in the center while his was not able to be completed today seeing as he had wanted work to be done on it.

He was however, happy and excited to see what it would look like in a few weeks.

What Mason did not anticipate however, would be that he would not have to sit around waiting for time to pass as several unexpected happenings would grab his and the entire pack's attention.

.

.

It was the later months of the year and everyone had been settling into the holiday cheer. Harry had come into the fold, the McCall pack got rebranded (literally) and Mason finally accepted his place as belonging in the group.

As for Harry, he was excited to finally meet the last two members of the pack seeing as they were finally flying back to Beacon Hills after being away for a good while. With Thanksgiving just around the corner, it was expected that Stiles and Lydia would finally come home, and no one was more excited than Harry – although the others would argue that no one could ever be more excited than Scott.

However, Harry was surprised to hear that when Scott had finally called his best friend and brother, he had demand, rather than ask, that he come home for the holiday season and that he and his girlfriend better not miss it, or else Scott would never talk to them again. Not sure if it was a complete joke, Harry had been worried and looked to Malia, who had been the only one in the room at the time, to see her stand calm as she just folded her arms as she smiled in amusement and continued to listen to the two best friends bicker back and forth for a few more minutes.

Even with Harry slightly concerned, it was known within the rest of the pack that when Scott threatened Stiles with words like that, it was a big fat lie.

Finally, the Wednesday before the dinner was to take place came and the young couple arrived in California with practically no one the wiser to their entrance.

It was to be a nice surprise for everyone.

Stiles and Lydia had always made it part of their duty as the long-distance members of the pack to try come home at least three times a year and so far, they never missed one of their planned trips.

The first time they came home was only a little over two months after they moved to the East coast, simply because they were home sick. The next time was in December for the holidays, and the time after that was when they came back for Spring Break. It added up, the couple admitted, that traveling even three times in a year, was starting to hurt their bank accounts.

After that, everyone happily chipped in for the cause, just wanting the two to come home to be with the rest of the pack.

It worked out after that, and the young couple were able to come home just like usual. But even then, it was starting to hurt everyone else's wallets. And so, with great reluctance, Stiles and Lydia decided that they could just not make it all the time for every holiday and get together that they wanted to attend. Eventually, a whole year had gone by where they did not return to Beacon Hills.

It was this year though, that something shifted in their little pack.

Harry Williams was asked to join by Scott.

For Stiles, it was a little difficult to accept simply because Stiles had been with Scott from the beginning and that meant he was also there when people joined the pack. Sure, it had been more unofficial and slow integration that no one ever seemed to realize at the time, but it was still something. Now was the first time that Stiles was not by Scott's side when the decision had been made.

Stiles heard about Harry from practically everyone, so it was not like he knew nothing about the man now, and even Scott talked about him like he had always been there when he and Stiles regularly talked on the phone. He was not jealous per say, but Stiles felt that there was some missing connection between himself and the new member because they had never meet in person before. That was all about to change since he and Lydia had finally bought plane tickets after an entire year of being away and were finally headed for Beacon Hills.

The day came when the finally arrived back in Beacon after a whole year, and wanting a bit of fun, they only ever said that they were coming in for the holiday but not when.

Melissa and Chris were the only two in the know and with a hidden smile, the two welcomed everyone else into their house as the pack arrived help prep for the large meal they would all be enjoying the next day. Late morning passed with most playing and goofing off rather than helping make all the food. After their lunch break however, Melissa finally put her foot down and with her famous glare, the pack was reduced to shamed pups who were willing to help make triple the amount of side dishes that would be needed. Melissa had it all planned out. Prep would be the day before so that all she would have to worry about would be cooking three whole turkeys the next day.

It was then that Malia snuck off outside to get away from the mama McCall dictator that her nose tingled. She lifted her nose high to get a better sense. Her nose twitched then scrunched slightly as a familiar scent trailed from around the side of the house to the front and she let a large grin take over her face.

With a loud explanation of, "No way!" Malia bolted back through the back door that led into the kitchen where most of everyone was. They were confused by her sudden energy and as she zipped passed them to the front door.

Most caught the smile that graced her face before she left the room again.

Before the couple on the other side of the front door could lift their hands to knock, Malia roughly grabbed the doorknob and swung the door open so fast, that those that followed her thought the door would fly off its hinges. As soon as the obstacle was out of the way, Malia happily jumped forward.

"Lydia!"

"Malia!"

The two girls shouted each other's names and they both wrapped their arms around each other in greeting. With strength on her side, Malia easily lifted Lydia off the ground so that her heeled feet dangled and the two spun in a short circle. When she placed Lydia back on her feet, Malia then leant forwards to rub her cheek against the strawberry blond hair before lowering to Lydia's own cheek. With her instincts out of the way, Malia finally stepped back from the other woman and turned to do the same to Stiles but was stopped as the noticed that Scott had gotten to him first.

A gentle smile graced her face and Malia let them be as they were clearly having a bit of a moment.

After learning about scents from Harry, Scott had come to her saying that the new information was logical and explained a lot of things that he was feeling towards all his pack.

Living in the wilderness for most of her life, smells had always made sense to Malia. But having never been an alpha, she did not have the same experiences as Scott to fully help him when he wanted to talk and get her input on such things. Scott would confide in her about his general thoughts and worries and sometimes that included Stiles.

One of the more pressing problems that Scott had been recently having was the long distance between himself and Stiles.

The longer he was away from his best friend and brother, the feinter Scott could feel and smell the other around him. Scott also admitted to Malia that his want to track the other down was getting stronger since his instincts were screaming at him to mark the other and strengthen their weakening bond. He had apparently been having this feeling to find Stiles for a while, but since Scott had not been aware why he was feeling this way until recently, he had ignored the instinct and just felt an overall sense of confusion.

Malia and Scott concluded that it was probably worse between the two of them seeing as they had been by each other's side since forever and for the first time, they were apart for more than a few days. It also did not help that even though Stiles would come home occasionally, Scott did not understand the bonding mechanics yet, so he never tried hard enough to leave a mark on Stiles.

With them separated for almost a complete year, Malia could tell that Stiles no longer smelled familiar. Since she was able to notice that right away, were-coyote could only imagine how Scott must be currently feeling.

 _Yes_ , Malia thought,  _it would be best to let them be right now._

She then turned back to Lydia with a smile appearing on her face once more, "I'm so happy you're here! Come on, let's get you inside so you can tell all about what's happened this past year."

"Of course! There is so much we have so much to catch up on. You know how much I love talking to you on the phone, but it's just not the same as it is in person."

The two girls smiled at each other as the both took one last glance at their respective boyfriends and headed inside where everyone else had gathered in the living room.

As Scott finally released Stiles from his grip, the last thing he heard before the door closed was Lydia saying, "Just wait 'til I tell you about the last few months. You won't believe it!"

.

.

"C'mon, let's go for a walk," was the first thing out of Scott's mouth when he finally separated himself from Stiles, "and get away from the nosey people with the super hearing."

Getting a smile and nod in understanding, the two brothers-in-all-but-blood headed down the sidewalk with no destination in mind. The November chill was almost nonexistent since it was a little after mid-day and the sun had plenty of opportunity to warm the air before it would descend once more.

Stiffing his hands in his coat to stop himself from reaching out to Stiles, Scott smiled as he said, "Dude, I can't believe you're here!"

With his own smile plastered across his face, Stiles replied, "Well you did say that I had to be here or else you would never talk to me again."

"Psh yeah, like we both knew that wasn't a lie. I thought you would have at least told me ahead of time."

"What, and ruin the fun?"

"What fun?"

"Seeing you all speechless and emotional because you were happy to see 'lil 'ol me," Stiles said with a dramatic bat of his eyelashes.

Scott removed a hand from his coat to push Stiles in the shoulder. The other went with the motion and stumbled into a front yard of a house they passed before righting himself and continuing along the sidewalk as a silly grin started forming on his face.

"Well if you really want, I can make a big deal out of you and Lydia coming home when we get back to the house, or at least I could have gone to pick you up from the airport. How did you get here anyway?"

"Just rented a car for a week."

"Well we can at least pay that for you guys."

"What? No way, Scott. Just because it's been a little hard on us saving up some cash just to get home, doesn't mean I'm now a charity case."

"Stiles, you know I don't mean it that way. I'm just saying that we could have picked you guys up. You're here for the holidays and that means we give each other gifts. Just let us do this so we at least know that we helped you guys out getting here somehow."

With a sigh, Stiles mumbled a quiet okay. Seeing a slight frown beginning to form after his acceptance, Scott thought it best to change the subject to a happier tone. He knew that the couple had been struggling a little bit financially since about this time last year, but Scott knew how proud the couple was. If they did not want to talk about it, Scott would let it be. At least for now.

"So, how's the last few weeks been? We last talked, what, around Halloween?"

"Yeah, and it's been alright. Same old I guess," Stiles said with a small shrug, "Lydia's almost done with the semester. It's her final year and she hopes to be done in the summer. I just started a team project at the academy. Since we're finally in the home stretch of passing the courses, they're going to study us on how well we can work with each other and if we can pull off all of their tests."

"Wow, that's awesome dude! And that goes for both you and Lydia. What's she going to do afterword's anyways? Last I heard, she still wasn't really sure."

With a tense of his shoulders, Stiles turned his head slightly away from Scott and another mumble escaped him that sounded like a, "She's still not sure."

Seeing that his subject change did nothing to brighten the mood, Scott just quietly sighed and looked ahead as they kept walking. Letting a few minutes go by to see if Stiles would try to start a conversation, Scott tried once more.

"And what about you? How have you been?"

"Yeah, I'm alright."

"That's it? You're alright?"

Stiles finally stopped walking and Scott followed when he did not hear his steps.

He looked back to see his best friend looking at him with an odd look on his face. His eyebrows are pushed together, and his lips were tense and turned down. If Scott were to describe the look, he would say that Stiles looked like a mix of frustrated and sad.

"I don't know."

Scott then stepped forward and reached out to Stiles. Seeing that the other did not try to back away, Scott rested his hands on the other shoulders.

He pushed down on Stiles' shoulders, hoping to bring a little comfort in the fact that he was actually trying to ground him, "Hey, what's wrong? What do you mean you don't know?"

With another light shrug of his shoulders, Stiles sighed, "That's just it Scott, I don't really know how I am feeling. A lot has happened in my life recently with the moving and working, you know that."

Scott nodded in understanding.

"Well, I've been feeling weird for a while now," Stiles said as he brought up a hand to touch his chest as though he was feeling his heartbeat. "Sometimes when I get bored or blank out for a while, I feel a sort of twist in me and then I get really homesick. Then I start thinking about home and why I'm feeling that way and then I get sad. Like real sad."

"Well, do you know what specifically your sad about? Or at least what your missing?"

"That's just it Scott, I don't. Sure, I miss my dad like nobody's business, but he doesn't really come across my mind when I get these thoughts. It's more like an overall longing for Beacon Hills." Stiles paused for a moment. "I sometimes feel like I am actually being pulled back here, man. Like there is a fishing rod hooked underneath my skin and some old fishing guy is trying to pull me out of a lake like the freaking Loch Ness Monster!" By the end of the small rant, Stiles had run his fingers through his hair out of frustration, forcing the mess to stand upright.

Scott allowed himself a small smile at the amusing scene before shaking his head to bring himself back into focus, but not before blurting out what was on his mind. "That sounds pretty funny actually – Stiles Stilinski: The Loch Ness Monster. Now I can just imagine you with funny shark teeth and trying to look scary by raising your hands like claws."

The other male just looked at Scott with a mix between humor and exasperation at trying to be the one to lighten the mood. That was usually Stiles' job.

"Yeah well, I just meant that I've been feeling a little down recently with these weird feelings and I don't know what to do about it."

"Well, did you talk to Lydia about this?"

"At first, not really. I mean, I guess we just had our own problems and routines going on since we both are trying to get through our respective jobs right now. But I finally talked to her when I noticed that she was kinda spacing out sometimes too. Turns out she's been feeling the same. Or at least a little bit but not as strong as I have been based on what she's told me and described."

It was a strange thing that Scott was not know what to make of it. He was worried that it might be that start to another incident that was brewing. It was after all Beacon Hills and strange things had been happening to the place ever since Scott was bitten.

His thoughts just so happened to shift however, and with the idea springing from nowhere, Scott moved without the thought finishing. He wound up pausing in their walk down the road to turn and hug Stiles. It was not a simple one like earlier when Stiles first came home, but longer and meaningful.

Scott wrapped his arms tightly around the other and made sure to press his face into shoulder.

He was glad to notice that Stiles did not try to push away to ask questions and instead reciprocated the hug and wrapped his own arms tightly around Scott's middle. The longer the two stayed like that, the more Scott could feel Stiles finally relaxing and that was when Scott's suspicions were confirmed.

Finally breaking away, they both looked each other in the eyes and turned away at the same time with a bit of red dusting their cheeks. Though they had always been close and were affectionate with each other, it seemed like they had slightly grown out of it ever since Stiles moved to the east side of the country. Scott even looked around to see if anyone had been around to see what had just happened – they were just out on the sidewalk in the middle of a neighborhood after all.

He was embarrassed to notice that someone had indeed been watching.

It was just some older woman who he did not know. She was standing on her lawn watering flower pots and when she noticed that Scott had spotted her, she just gave a small smile and raised one her thumbs.

Red continued to bloom on his face once he realized that she must have assumed that they were a couple and were making up or something. Not wanting to stay there any longer, he told Stiles that he wanted to go to the park to sit down. There they could talk, and Scott promised to tell Stiles everything as he started to ask questions right there.

Pushing the others shoulder to get him to start walking so that Scott would not have to remain embarrassed any longer, the alpha turned back one last time to the woman to see her giggling into her hand as she watched them walk away.

Trying to shake the remaining awkwardness, Scott was finally able to drag Stiles to a bench the overlooked a small duck pond in a nearby park.

"Sorry about that back there," Scott started off by saying.

"It's cool. It was kind of nice actually."

"Yeah, about that," Scott trailed off when he did not know how to say the rest, "There's something interesting that happened a while back with Harry. I didn't tell you because I sort of forgot to." Scott finished with a bashful shrug as he looked to see how Stiles was faring so far.

"Well don't keep me waiting."

"Okay. So, Harry explained to me a little bit about what it means to be an alpha werewolf. There was some stuff about how to be polite to other packs and stuff like that, but the other thing he talked about instincts and pack bonding basically. I learned that I need to accept that a part of me is not human and so I will have traits and instincts that are not human either. One of these things that I have sort of gotten used to is scents."

The last sentence made Stiles widen his eyes in understanding. Scott was happy that he would not have to go into detail seeing as it looked like Stiles understood where he was trying to go with this. It sure was nice to have a best friend that was super smart and read up on things that Scott would have never considered.

"You're telling me that I have been feeling this way because I don't smell the pack anymore?"

"Basically. Though I'm not sure how you can feel that way since you're not a werewolf. Or any other supernatural for that matter."

"Hey, just because I am all 100% fresh human," Stiles said as he made an exaggerated motion towards himself, "doesn't mean I don't have some mojo in me from being around all you crazies for the past five years."

With a laugh, Scott nodded in agreement.

"Anyways, I'm glad you know what I was getting at. You might have been feeling homesick because you subconsciously wanted to come back here so that you could belong and smell like the rest of us. I mean, did you realize how tense you were before I just hugged you?"

Stiles was quiet for a minute as he thought about that before he nodded. "Wow, I guess you're right. It still is pretty weird how much has changed for us since Peter bit you, you know. This is bizarre, but I kind of like it too. I mean, how many people get to say that they have people in their lives that they actually need to be around them to feel good. I can't believe that I have been this moody just because I missed you guys. And wanted to smell like you – gross!"

The two laughed at that.

"Anyways," Stiles continued, "I guess this means that I'll have to put my detective hat back on."

"Uh, why?"

"So that I can start reading more into this! I know damn well that you only listened to what Harry said and didn't look any further into this. That's my job."

Scott gave a weak laugh at being easy to predict but was still happy to have Stiles do it anyways. There was no one better. Well, except maybe Lydia.

Trying to get back on track, the young alpha shook his head to clear his thoughts, "I'm curious; how long have you felt like this?"

"Hmm, maybe a couple months after I left last time? So that was around February maybe March. Although, now that I think about it, it was this sort of small ache at the beginning but turned stronger later. Of course, I just passed off the feelings as regular homesickness since I had no reason to think it was supernatural but about two maybe three months ago that it started feeling like a real pull to get me back here as soon as possible."

Scott's eyes widened at the coincidence. Two and half months ago was when Harry told him everything about how to be an alpha. Did something happen then that caused the rest of the pack to 'awaken' and feel more like a pack? He told as much to Stiles and the other considered it before nodding in agreement.

"Well this is something supernatural we're talking about. There are effects that we don't know much about yet. Maybe because you're the alpha, once you learned something that you subconsciously knew was important, you somehow did a mind thing where you telepathically sent the knowledge to us."

Scott widened his eyes at that, "Now I'm a telepath?"

With a snort Stiles shook his head at the look on Scott's face, "No, more like some type of knowledge passing through you to your betas. I don't think you can talk in our heads. At least, you better not. I don't need to hear your annoying voice when I'm on the toilet."

Rolling his eyes at the last statement, the alpha braced his hands on his knees as he stood up. "Ha ha, Stiles. Well I'm glad we got to catch up without any interference and I'm especially glad that I could tell you about the scent thing, but we should probably head back."

"You're right. Don't want to leave the children along to cause a ruckus!" Stiles giggled to himself as he stood up as well and the two started to head back.

"Oh, by the way, I was wondering what you guys were going to do afterwards?" Scott asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you said that Lydia is almost done with University. I don't know how much you have left but you sort of hinted at it when you said that you were finally put on a group project as a final test."

Stiles stuffed his hands in his hoodie and puffed out his cheeks in thought before sighing, "Not sure."

Scott spared a glance at the other before trying to subtle, "Well, is coming back an option?"

A smile started to bloom on Stiles' face at the question. He looked over to see that Scott was still staring at him, "For sure. Honestly, I really want that to be the option."

"Well why can't it be for certain?"

Another sigh escaped Stiles, "Scott, it can't be that simple anymore-"

"Sure it can!" Scott almost shouted as he turned to human.

"No, it can't. I know that we have been joined at the hip ever since that day in the sandbox, but I moved to join the F.B. freaking I. It's a little more serious now and if I move back here, it will either be because I leave working there or I get a job here. I'm sorry I didn't say anything earlier about it, but I have just been so anxious about this decision and I didn't want to say anything for the longest time. But I've been tired of holding it in, so now…"

Not knowing what to say, Scott just looked down at the sidewalk. Conversation simmered after that and the rest of the walk back was filled with silence.

Though he was a little bummed out at what Stiles had said, Scott was still determined to have the other come back. It was selfish, Scott could admit in the comfort of his own mind, but he missed his brother. There were plenty of reasons that the other should come back to Beacon Hills – he just needed to think of them before confronting the other again.

.

.

Stiles and Lydia were finally properly introduced to Harry the next day. The day before it had been, for the most part, a quick hello since all the couple wanted to do was reconnect with everyone else. Harry was not hurt and genuinely glad to see how everyone greeted the two estranged pack members. If it meant the older man got to see all the smiles and laughs, he had been happy to wait another day.

In the end, when the three were properly introduced to each other the next day on Thanksgiving, Stiles, in his usual fashion, gave off the impression that he was slightly suspicious of the beta's intentions and hovered around the wary older man for several hours. Harry tended to look spooked at how close Stiles would be willing to get in front of him just to see what he would do.

Even as one of the bigger males within the group, everyone could see how tense Harry's shoulders would get, making him look smaller whenever Stiles would hang around him and ask questions. They were never mean or asked in an odd way with a hidden meaning, but they all knew that Stiles was just trying to see how good of a person Harry was and if he was worthy of Scott's praise – and by extension, Stiles' praise.

Most, at one point, wanted to go over to rein in Stiles and his more energetic tactics, but they usually stopped themselves when they realized that the FBI trainee was just being protective of them.

It was Scott however, that struggled the most. He wanted to be a middle ground for the two. One moment the alpha wanted to laugh at how serious Stiles looked when he tried to grill Harry, yet at other times, Scott wanted to pull Stiles back to give Harry some breathing room.

The younger man would ask every question that would come to mind, and he asked Harry no matter the time or situation throughout the day.

"So, Harry," Stiles finally said as he began his more in-depth questions, "How have you been liking Beacon Hills?"

The two of them were sitting on the couch in Melissia's living room while everyone else was either in the kitchen or in the backyard. Preparations had not been finished yesterday since Stiles and Lydia arrived and took everyone's attention.

Now, working double time – and only with those she trusted to be in the kitchen cooking – Melissa, Lydia, and Mason were trying to finish making sides while the oven was being worked over time to try and get three entire turkeys reheated in time. Thank god that mama McCall had been smart enough to cook two of them the day before so now all she had to do was heat them again.

Those that had been kicked out of the kitchen had migrated either outside to the backyard or lingered in the Livingroom.

Taking a bathroom break, Harry had snuck away and as he came back from down the hall, he was met by a smiling Stiles holding two beers. At one point, everyone else must have moved outside and Harry was even more cowed now that he was alone with Stiles.

Knowing that he was probably going to be fully interrogated by Scott's best friend, Harry warily accepted the drink and the two sat down on the main couch. Harry was sure that Stiles knew that everyone could hear them talking if they really wanted to listen in but went with it anyways.

"I love it here. I'm glad to  _be_  here. Everyone was really welcoming when I first got here, and I have even been able to find job opportunities to keep myself busy." Harry easily kept a smile on his face when Stiles first began interrogating him.

"Mmhm. You're a laborer and are currently working on the construction of the new East Wing of the high school, right?" Stiles said as he looked to the side, as though he was recalling the memory. As though he knew what Harry was doing for a while now.

"Uh, yeah. Um, how did you know that? Did Scott tell you?"

With just a creepy grin, the younger man replied with, "Nope. Learned that myself."

If Harry were honest with himself, he was both scared and impressed. No wonder Scott spoke so highly of him. Not knowing how to respond, the old ginger gave a weak laugh.

Picking up as though he had not just been completely intimidating, Stiles said, "So what do you like to do for fun?"

"I like to whittle – that means I carve wood into small figures. Besides that, I guess just being around the pack. It's relaxing and entertaining. But I'm sure you know that."

Stiles was intrigued to notice that as Harry spoke about a comfortable subject, he seemed to sink into the couch. "Yeah, that I do know. So whittling, eh? Never done it before. Is it easy to pick up?"

"I like to think so. You just need to find a good type of wood that it easy to carve into and a sturdy knife. I can show you some time if you like?"

With a twitch of a smile and a small nod, Stiles agreed. He noticed that Harry's body language was open with his body more turned to face Stiles on the couch.

"What about you, Stiles?"

"Oh, me? I don't know. Guess I like to do research about helping Scott, spending time with my girlfriend Lydia, and taking care of my jeep."

Surprised at both the acceptance to speak as well as what he liked, Harry raised an eyebrow. He was not blind – Harry could tell that while the other was not really pushing his buttons, the younger man was trying to find out all he could out of him. Not trying to be defiant, but wanting to have a bit of fun himself, Harry tried to get back at Stiles. "So, wanna tell me why you hate me?"

Surprised at that, Stiles chocked on his sip of beer. Trying to wipe away the dribble that went down his chin, Stiles turned to Harry with a shocked look on his face before a smile took its place. "Well what do you know, you do have some balls on you."

Harry just looked at Stiles, waiting for him to answer his question.

"Look, Harry I don't hate you. I'm just being cautious here. I know that you've been a part of the pack for a few months now, but I never got the chance to be here and meet you. I'm not trying to kick you out, I guess I'm just trying to be the strict 'parent' here. I'm sure you've heard some of our horror stories from these past years and its just made me over protective of these guys. They're my family. Plus being part of the F.B.I. has its perks."

Harry finally let a smile come onto his face before it shifted into an outright laugh. "Don't worry, Stiles. I know what you were doing and it's alright. In fact, I'm happy you are trying to be this tough. These people are precious to you and if you don't mind me saying, precious to me as well. I'm not afraid to say that you intimidated me and are still kind of right now, but I assure you, I love these guys and would  _never_  hurt them. This is my family now – and you're a part of that too."

With a big sigh, Stiles leaned back into the couch. His spit-take from earlier had left a funny damp spot on his knee. He tried to pat it dry with no success. Instead, he turned his attention back the werewolf next to him.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Sorry about all of that."

"It's all good."

"And just so you know, I'm not sorry about questioning you. But I am sorry about spooking you a bit and maybe I can admit that I didn't have to be such a weird stalker for almost the whole day."

Harry rolled his eyes but the look on his betrayed how happy and pleased he actually was. He was about to open his mouth to respond but another voice interrupted them from the kitchen.

"Oh, just kiss and make up already! Dinner is done so get you furry butt in here, Harry and get your, uh, detective butt in here, Stiles!"

"Real nice descriptions there, Scott," came another voice.

"Well then I'd  _love_  to hear what you have to say Liam."

As Harry and Stiles finally stood up to head into the other room, Harry could faintly pick up the sound of Liam inhaling before a yelp was heard instead. Before they could move into sight of everyone else, Stiles grabbed Harry's arm to stop in him. Turning back to face him, Harry was surprised feel arms wrap around him. Before he would say anything or reciprocate, the quickest hug ever was done.

The new mixed smell assaulted his nose and as he let himself get used to it, Harry was happy to feel a part to his shoulder as Stiles finally walked past him and entered the kitchen.

In contrast to the wild ride that was known as Stiles, the meeting between Lydia and Harry short and simple.

As soon as dinner had been eaten and leftovers had been packed and handed out, they young couple stood by the front door, ready to head to the hotel they were staying at for their visit. As everyone was saying their goodbyes for the night, Lydia walked over to Harry and had simply looked him over from head to foot until she lifted her eyes to look right into his. She crossed her arms and never spoke as her gaze pierced into his. When he eventually had to look away, intimidated by her and even more so than Stiles, she finally stepped back with a genuine smile gracing her features. She first turned to Scott and then Stiles as she said he was okay in her book.

Harry was surprised to see Stiles deflate at that and give a nod in acceptance to what she said.

After it was all said and done, that Thanksgiving may have been hectic and wild with so many people, but it was certainly memorable. And it was also the famous day that Stiles Stilinski and Lydia Martin met and acknowledged Harry Williams.

**End Chapter 6**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, bam! A new chapter after four months. I also revised the previous chapters so if you want to head back and reread, go for it!
> 
> Something that I have been doing but might not have been completely noticeable for some of these chapters it that I have jumped ahead quite a few times in this story so far. There was not a lot in this chapter itself, but you might have picked up how long Harry had been around. From that, you also might be able to guess how long its been since chapter one.
> 
> I've been doing these jumps due to the plan that the first 8 to 10 chapters will be a sort of a prologue leading into the rest of the story which will take place in the year 2018 and onwards. This so called "main" part will be the more fun parts and will most likely not be so plot heavy (if you would even consider this stuff so far to be heavy). Instead, I hope it will be more fun and happy like the day-to-day lives of the pack. It will only be "serious" or "plot heavy" when people come to join the pack.
> 
> Would anyone be interested in seeing the timeline I have written out for the posted chapters? Would that help people or is it not needed?
> 
> With that, thanks for sticking with me, remember that feedback is always appreciated, and I hope to see you next chapter!


	7. Protect And Reconnect

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the second chapter for this week! I have been pretty excited for this one for a while now, so I am happy to finally put it out.
> 
> I just know that you guys will like it too since a certain someone will finally be here. Yay!

**Inspired Song:[Marina and the Diamonds – Weeds](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlE2WQCGGZo)**

.

.

That December was one of the more colder months in the last few years.

Even in California, no one wished to be outside for longer than needed. Instead, everyone would gather indoors to catch up on movies and television shows, reconnecting with family and friends, and sharing stories over warm beverages.

That was how on the last weekend of year, when a surprise storm was wreaking havoc outside, the entire pack could be found gathered inside Melissa's house. Holiday decorations still covered every wall and room in the house, making it livelier than usual. Even with New Year's still a few days away, everyone chipped in the day before to put up cheap paper decorations. The house looked like a mess with the amalgamation of décor and no one in the house would have it any other way.

With the storm outside making the pack and family feel the need to be cozy while indoors, everyone was bundled underneath thick blankets in the living room. Scattered board games littered the carpeted floor, cups of hot chocolate topped with marshmallows and whipped cream rested across the coffee table, and the television played reruns of their favorite holiday movies.

While everyone was happy to lounge around doing their own things in the presence of the each other, Stiles had a better idea. After a little convincing, a few people were dragged into playing some board games. After a while, an intense game of Scrabble finally finished, and they then moved on to Monopoly.

To make it interesting, Stiles had suggested playing in teams of two and he happily snuggled up to Lydia in response, letting everyone know who he chose for his partner. Hayden grabbed Harry, Scott teamed up with Mason, and Malia snagged Corey, which left Liam to sulk as no one wanted him since he was notorious for failing horribly when it came to Monopoly.

Melissa had been leaning back on couch next to Noah when she had noticed the predicament. She gave a quiet laugh in pity before she slid down off the couch to sit next to the young beta on the floor and hugged him from the side as she said she would play with him and together they would kick Scott's butt. Happy with the turnout, Liam eagerly accepted her hug and when he saw Scott over her shoulder, he stuck out his tongue as though he had just won the best prize.

Scott leaned forward to flick Liam's nose without his mom knowing but stopped when she released her hug and turned forward to the game. All she caught in her peripheral was her son quickly pulling his arm close to scratch at his head and Liam's muffled laughing on her other side.

The game raged on for a good while. No one would give up even when their fake money would run dangerously low and they were close to bankruptcy.

Eventually people bailed when it got too intense and instead watched from the sidelines with their warm drinks cradled in their hands. Melissa eventually accepted defeat with Liam and she climbed back onto the couch to continue reading her book. Parts of teams also left with Mason going to get more snacks from the kitchen and Lydia taking a bathroom break.

It was lastly down to just Scott and Stiles battling it out in the most serious game of the night so far. They both held a poker face as they tried to buy the last few spaces when there was a sudden knock at the front door.

The soft chattering throughout the entire room died down as they all faced source of the noise, wondering who it could possibly be at this time of night. Scott frowned in consideration before he turned to his mom, "Chris said he wouldn't be home for another two weeks, right?"

"Right. And he wouldn't knock anyways, he has his own key."

The rest of the pack slowly shifted their own faces to mimic Scott as they continued to stare down Melissa's front door until Scott finally stood up. Noah was quick to follow behind him as back up and Stiles scurried to follow behind the two.

Scott did not think that it was anything to be worried about, but it was always better to be safe rather than sorry.

He focused and soon heard a single heartbeat outside on the porch. He could not smell much since the storm was still going strong and the thick door blocked most of it. He chanced a glance through the peephole, but the occasional flash of lighting only highlighted the figures outline.

The more he stared though the tiny outlet however, Scott thought that the figure was beginning to look familiar.

A shocked sound escaped Scott's throat as he quickly flicked on the porch light and unlocked the door to greet the stranger.

"Derek?" Noah was the first to speak as he squinted his eyes as though he could not believe who stood in front of him.

"Whoa, it's Derek!" Came an exclamation from Stiles as he peeked his head from over his dad's shoulder, confirming Noah's suspicion.

Scott did not hear any voices though as he was simply shocked at seeing the older man after so long. It had been at least an entire year since they saw each other when Derek came to help with Monroe and Anuk-Ite. And even then, Derek had only been around for a few days at most before he disappeared again. So, personally, Scott felt like it had been at least three whole years since he last saw and even heard from the older werewolf.

Scott could not have been happier and angrier than he currently felt as he reached forward to grab the other's shoulders and bring him in for a hug.

Strong arms eventually consented to the hold and wrapped around Scott's own shoulders in a fierce embrace.

It was the definition of a masculine hug that was all thick arms and strong pats to the back and Scott felt like as was well in the world in those few seconds.

He finally stepped back to get a better look at the other but lost the chance as Stiles moved forward to give a similar hug. Once it passed he stepped back to stand at Scott's side and said what had been on the Alpha's mind.

"Dude, where the hell have you been? It's been like what, thirteen months since we last saw you? And even since then, I have only ever been able to track you down twice – and I work for the F.B.I.!"

"Yeah…" came a croaked reply.

That was when Scott finally let the stars dim in his eyes to see the real picture in front of him. There stood Derek, that was for sure, but the older werewolf looked like he had seen better days.

His clothes were completely soaked, and his beard was the longest that Scott had ever seen it. His hair looked like a horrible, dirty mess and the soaked clothes were most definitely not suitable for the current weather, let alone the current season. Scott knew that even a werewolf with a warm body like Derek would not choose to wear those if he could help it. Something was wrong and as his face shifted due to his thinking, Lydia interrupted.

"Well move aside you two idiots! Let him in. Can't you see what he's wearing? Sheesh."

Blushing at not thinking of doing that earlier, he and Stiles moved back inside to let Derek finally walk into the home.

Right away, Melissa was there with an armful of fluffy towels to hand to the soaked man. With a tired grumble in thanks, he tried to dry off his hair and beard as best as he could. Everyone had since then stood up and joined in at the front entrance. It was silent as Derek continued to hide his face in the towels as he dried off. The silence began to be too awkward as no one spoke and the only sound was the storm outside and the dripping clothes that hung from Derek's frame.

Clearing his throat, Scott thought it best to help Derek before he should try to grill him for a story. "Hey, c'mon. Let's get you upstairs for a warm shower. Not sure if my clothes will fit you even after all these years, but anything is better than what you have on."

"Thanks, Scott," was all Derek said with a grateful nod of his head. He had since removed the towels from his face, giving everyone a view of sunken, tired eyes.

His appearance seemed like the magic spell that got them moving. Almost everyone moved back into the living room to give Derek space and in the end, only Scott, Stiles and Derek were the remaining three in the front hall.

"Come on," Scott softly said as he headed up the stairs.

The other two followed him and when they stopped in front of the bathroom, Scott stopped Derek from walking in by gently grabbing his wrist.

"Scott, please. I want to talk and tell you guys everything too, but I'm tired and just want to take a boiling hot shower right now."

"I know Derek, but I just wanted to say that I'm glad you're here. We've missed you. Just, uh, take your time in there and come find us when you're ready. I'll go get some clothes for you real quick too."

The older werewolf spared a grateful look to the two in front of him before he closed the door behind him.

.

.

The living room still held some of the holiday cheer, but the volume was relatively quieter. Most of the people had a look on their face that spoke of how much their thoughts were occupied with the one upstairs. The only one in the dark was Harry. He had obviously heard about Derek since he tended to be included in the stories that everyone would tell him about, so he at least had a basic idea of what he was like. But the ginger still knew next nothing about him personally or where he had been all this time.

Finally, after a while, the creak of the stairs alerted the group that someone was walking down them.

The television was muted, and conversations paused as they all turned to see Derek come around the corner in a snug long sleeved shirt and clean, damp hair.

Hayden moved from the couch to sit on Liam's lap and Scott patted the empty space to invite Derek to sit down. He gave an amused shake of his head and rolled his eyes at the antics of the alpha before he gratefully sat down. He gave a look of surprise to be presented with a cup of warm tea from Melissa right away. The look quickly shifted to gratitude as he clasped the mug in both of his hands to gain a little bit more warmth, though the heat from all the bodies in the room was doing a rather good job of that already.

As soon as he took a sip, Derek felt his muscles relax as he finally felt safe for the first time in months. He looked at all the curious eyes around him – noting that one pair were unfamiliar to him – and ended on Scott when he finally let the smallest of smiles grace his face.

"So…" Derek trailed off. Scott was glad to notice that his raspy voice seemed to have faded and instead was his usual brooding tone.

"So, how are you?"

Derek turned to Scott in surprise, "That's your first question?"

"Well, yeah. It's the most important one."

Scott caught the faintest scent of embarrassment that was quickly covered by gratitude.

"I'm alright," a shrug came with the answer, "could always be worse though."

Rolling his eyes at how much the answer was such a Derek thing to say, Stiles chimed in with, "Yes because I totally think that wearing a T-shirt with a bunch of holes in it and old, torn jeans in December and in the middle of a storm is grounds for being 'alright' and not bad at all."

Derek turned to glare at Stiles in reply before saying, "You know what I mean, Stiles."

The other just gave a shrug with his arms raised. He opened his mouth to reply but Lydia was quick to slap the back of her hand across his chest. She gave him a look that clearly told him to keep his mouth shut.

"Anyways," Scott said, "you want to tell us what's going on? Where have you been for the last year? The last time we saw you was when you came back to help out against Monroe but then you were gone just a few days later."

"It's kind of a long story but it's also kind of not," Derek began as he leaned back into the couch and let an arm drape across the armrest. "When I first left three years ago, it was to go find other packs in the southern states and South America, you remember that, right? Well then, I got mixed up in some other things for a while and that was how Stiles found me when he was first starting out as an F.B.I. trainee.

"It wasn't too bad and since Stiles was there, he helped bail me out after giving his own good word." Here, Derek looked up from his lap to Stiles and gave a smile in thanks. "I roamed around a little after that to help more people in the southern states before I came back here to help you out with Monroe. Afterwards, something came up with a large pack all the way down in Peru. That's why I left so quickly afterwards – I needed to get there as fast as I could."

"Okay, that's starting to paint a picture. What happened in Peru and after that?"

"Funny you should mention it – that's when you came in."

"Sorry, what?" was all Scott could say in confusion.

With a small shake of his head and a faint tilt of his lips into a smile, Derek said, "The Peru thing was sort of a mess – and before you try to say that you would have come to help – I knew that it would be best for me to go alone on that trip, and I was right. Like I said, it was a mess. There was a lot going on, but I eventually got through it. Apparently, there are a lot of hunters in that area and even one of the largest packs in the country was doing pretty bad. I helped as much as I could since they trusted me so much."

"Wait," Scott interrupted, "why did they trust you?"

"Well partly because I had been sticking around for a while but mostly because the previous alpha had been a close friend of my mom's. I had originally went down to there to just check up on them. I was surprisingly welcomed with open arms even though the real 'allies' have been dead for a while.

"Anyways, you, Scott, came into the picture  _after_  Peru. I traveled around a little bit more after that when I finally headed back to the states. And you won't believe how surprised I was when I heard rumors about some alpha werewolf running around the west side of the country with an old ex-hunter, trying to save packs and just people in general."

A surprised and almost bashful look came upon Scott's face at what Derek said. Everyone turned to look at Scott with varying degrees of smiles on their faces at the reminder of how amazing and kind their alpha was.

"I was even more surprised after doing a bit digging and found out that one of the first, if not  _the_  first, place that you helped out was the Chavez Pack in Arizona."

"Oh! The one back on the farm with Monroe, right? Yeah, the alpha was Gabriel. He was really nice and cool."

"Well sure, Gabriel is 'nice and cool', but I was more surprised to find out that you guys are now allies. That's amazing, Scott. I'm impressed because he can be a very blunt man. He always says and does what's on his mind no matter how insulting it may come out. For him to like you, let alone offer something like is something that people before you have tried with him and failed at."

"Okay, yeah, that's pretty crazy then. Guess I was lucky. I mean, I know that some people don't always agree especially when it can come to whole packs working together, but I didn't really think it was all that impressive. But it is?"

Derek gave Scott his famous stare. No emotion was displayed on the older werewolf's face, but the look obviously said that he thought Scott was asking a stupid question.

"Yes, Scott, it is. Being friendly and on good terms with other packs is always a plus but to be allied is even better. And in this current climate, it's getting pretty rare since trust is slowly slipping."

"You would think that trust would be growing if there are crazy hunters roaming around now like Monroe," Lydia chimed in. All eyes turned to her and she slightly shifted to lean away from their stares as she pursed her lips. Even though everyone here was family, it was still sometimes a bit shocking to gain so much attention from just saying one sentence. She was thankful that everyone turned back to Derek to hear his reply.

"You're right, that would usually be that case, but there's just so much going on right now. And besides, when I was in Peru, apparently a lot of newly turned people just didn't want to be a part of this world and wound up turning their backs on their alphas and going to hunters. It's sad and frustrating because they are being killed as soon as they gave away their packs location and the occasional pack secret. The whole thing was really messed up.

"That was also where I learned that a lot of hunters around the world have also been in contact recently. They're noticing that a lot of activity had been going on around this side of the world and people from the other continents are slowly taking an interest over here. I guess the overall thinking for packs right now is that it's hard to trust outsiders anymore. Honestly, Scott, what you and Chris have been doing is really bringing back a lot of hope and optimism within the community."

"What about the hunters? Is there a leak somewhere where they might have gotten the same information that you found about Scott?" Stiles asked. Lydia nodded her agreement at his side, both of their brains working in overtime to think of how to keep the pack safe.

"It's likely, though I don't know for certain. I know that I get my information from trustworthy people or hear it by sneaking around. I don't think that there will be any real danger for a while, but you can never be too careful. That's why no packs are talking outside of their own right now. Like I said, trust is lacking these days."

Derek stopped talking to finish off his drink and the rest of the group tried to wrap their minds around all the information that was being dumped on them.

Scott leaned back into the couch and rested his forearms on his head as he sat there in thought.

Stiles and Lydia turned to each other and let their smarts lead their brains into high gear as they had a silent conversation about what they thought.

Malia leaned her crossed arms over the coffee table as she sat next to Mason and Corey. She could understand that people were being warry and untrustworthy, but she was happy to learn from Derek that Scott had made the right choice to go out and help people for the last nine months. She was also proud of herself for going along with Scott on at least one of those trips and being able to help – it brought Harry to them after all, so she though it was a huge plus.

The four youngest members were silent in thought as well, though their worries were mostly about the packs safety and what they could do to help in any way that they could.

There seemed to be an overall feeling of worry that everyone had.

Finally, Scott sat upright and turned to Derek, "It's all a lot to take in, but you still haven't said what you've been doing recently to get you to look like that." Scott made a gesture to Derek by sweeping his hand from the top of Derek's head to his feet.

Derek finally showed an emotion that matched his previous state as he looked down and cleared his throat to give himself some time to organize his thoughts. He gave a deep sigh as he scratched at his beard, causing Scott and Lydia to notice how Derek frowned to himself once he realized how long it was and it made the two of them giggle to themselves at how silly he looked like that.

"Well, it's kind of funny that you should mention that…"

"Why wouldn't I? Derek, you looked like a mess. You still do sort of, but I was worried.  _We_  were worried about you since we haven't seen you in forever and then you just show up looking like  _that._ "

"Yeah. Look, a lot has happened and some of it is my own business," here, Scott let a small frown grace his features as he tried to interrupt, but Derek beat him to it, " _but_  some of it I can share. I guess it would sort of be your business anyways. I was in Vegas."

"Wait, Vegas as in Las Vegas?"

Rolling his eyes, Derek answered Stiles' question, "Yes, Las Vegas: Sin City, the City of Lights, Glitter Gulch. Anyways, I was there recently because I had heard that there was going to be some kind of hunter meeting going down. This was a few months ago, mind you, but stuff only just started going down recently.

"I wound up in Arizona after you and Chris left there since I also heard about the two packs you saved. That was also when I learned about your alliance. Turns out that the information that Chris came upon that made him go there in the fist place was the same info that I had. When I was there, I was able to get a little bit of information but not a whole lot to go on. That is, until I heard about plans for the group I was tailing. There was talk about going to Las Vegas. At first, I thought it was just to have fun and be a normal kind of vacation, but then I heard them talking about meeting up with names that I know are connected to hunting families.

"I almost got caught because I stayed too long, but I guess I lucked out. I heard all of this practically in public from these two idiots who had no filter and that was how I was able to head off to Las Vegas."

Everyone else in the room wore expressions of shock and amazement at the story Derek was telling them. Most knew that the werewolf was skilled and usually worked best alone, but to hear about him running all around North and South America and trailing hunters was amazing.

Derek continued his tale by explaining that he hitched a ride and eventually made his way to Vegas, following the trail. Because it was a large city in the middle of the desert, having a lot of people gradually come into the city did not bring a lot of attention to the hunters. Another benefit to being there, Derek told them, was because they would still get their privacy by leaving city limits and heading into the desert if they needed the space to congregate without anyone the wiser.

.

.

Arriving in the city was not difficult. It was continuing to follow the hunters that he knew were around, that was the hard part. Knowing better than to risk taking a flight there, Derek had to take the longer route by driving from Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada. While it was not long journey by any stretch of the imagination, it still was a bit of a waste of time that could have been better spent if he arrived earlier.

He loitered around the airport for a while, hoping to catch a familiar scent of any hunter that he had crossed paths with before, but when security started noticing his face among the thousands that came through every day, Derek knew it would be best for him to stay away.

Eventually, he resorted to staking out certain hotels that he watched out for.

He eventually got a lead after a few days and followed some lowly hunter as they left a food truck and headed back to one of the many three-star hotels downtown. Tailing was a piece of cake for Derek and when he entered the lobby, he just caught the back of the young hunter as they stepped into an elevator.

He paid attention to which floor he went to before Derek stepped into his own elevator.

A woman tried calling out for him to hold the door as it was sliding closed and Derek being himself when he was on a mission, just stared her down as his finger held down the button that told the elevator to close it doors. Smirking at her angered look, he finally took a moment to relax once he was alone.

Finally reaching the desire floor, it became slightly more difficult to find out where the hunter went from all the potent scents that filled the hall, but he eventually picked up the sweaty odor of the hunter that led to a door in the middle of the hall.  _Must be a newbie_  Derek thought when he considered how easy it had been for him so far.

He had no plans of confrontation, but he hoped to be able to hear in through the door, or at least stick around to see who else would come or leave.

The chances of being caught were slightly high, but this was his only chance.

If he wanted to get any information, this was his best bet.

Thankfully, it worked for the most part. When more people wound up arriving, he was able to hide in alcoves that divided room entrances from each other. When he listened in, Derek could hear voices but was not able to recognize any of the voices of big shots in the room. It was basically the lower ranking guys from various hunting groups. He guessed that they were playing the part of messengers.

The werewolf was not surprised to figure out that even hunter groups were being untrustworthy with each other nowadays.

Derek did eventually hear the most important information up to this point, which was that there was an agreement about meeting up in person to discuss the so called "werewolf epidemic" that was going on in the Americas.

In his anger, Derek had rolled his eyes when he heard that and scoffed.

Right away, he knew that he had messed up and the silence on the other side of the door confirmed it. Wasting no time, he ran for the elevator and pressed the call button. He turned back to see a head peeking out from the door and look both directions before they stared right at Derek. Not hearing the elevator arrive yet and knowing that he was caught since he looked suspicious just staring right back at the hunter, he bailed for the stairs.

Cursing once he heard steps running after him, he slammed into the heavy doors that led to the stairwell and turned back, ready for a quick fight that would hopefully end in him winning.

The male that burst through after him was a thin as a twig. He tried to raise a gun up to him and Derek almost laughed at how heavy it appeared to be based upon how clumsy the hunter was holding it. Gaining confidence at who stood before him, Derek lunged and look care of the hunter by grabbing ahold of the base of the head and twisting.

As soon as the body slumped to the floor, another hunter took his place as the door slammed opened again.

Knowing that more would just wind up following and suspecting that they might have already called their superiors about his appearance, Derek turned and ran down the stairs. He eventually started leaping over the rails to get down quicker by skipping a few of the steps.

Derek knew he was cornered when he tried to go further down but was stopped by two figures with crossbows pointed right at him. He turned to the door that would lead into the floor that he was stopped on but as he reached for the handle, an arrow impaled through his forearm and he let out a shout that was both in pain and surprise. Right away, he could feel the weakening affects of wolf's bane and Derek yanked out the arrow that pierced both sides of his arm.

It did not heal due to the substance now in his body and as he tried once more to open the door, albeit more sluggishly now, he was stopped again by pairs of rough hands grabbing him and restraining him.

The fight never left him and as he tried to buck and twist his body in defense, he felt a sharp pinprick hit his neck. Derek was shocked to feel himself fading out of consciousness so quickly.

Derek spared telling the pack about the grittier details of what happened when he woke up, but everyone understood that he had been captured. And when werewolves were captured by hunters, it was never a pleasant time in their company. Knowing how strong Derek was when it came to survival, no one was surprised to hear how he was able to bide his time for close to two months while he was captured. Though, the faces in the room still showed how much they 'appreciated' the thought of one of their own being held for that long.

With a break in explaining the more depressing part of the tale, Derek turned away from his lap (where he had been staring as he talked the entire time) and looked right at Scott.

"You know, Scott, I was in their capture two months ago. When you started taking your alpha duties more seriously."

There was a still in the room that was mostly confusion.

"Wait," Stiles said, "how do you know  _that_?"

Scott nodded, "Yeah, that's a little freaky. How  _do_  you know that?"

Derek rolled his eyes as their looks before he shook his head with a twitch at the corners of his mouth, "You may not like to think about it, but I was sort of in this pack a few years ago. I knew that you did not know that when you first became an alpha, but I did. It was most certainly not official, and I left a little afterwards, so I'm not surprised that it's not that strong on your end, or the rest of the pack for that matter, but I felt it. And then, two months ago, I started feeling you trying to pull me back here again, even if it was really faint."

Wide eyes looked at him from almost every face at that.

Scott's looked the most surprised and Derek noticed how he turned to look at the one male in the room that Derek did not know, who gave a nod at Scott's look. Interesting.

The alpha turned back to Derek then, "Well, uh, I guess it worked then. Since you're here."

It was quiet for a moment. Derek did not what to say to that because while he could agree with Scott, that was not entirely why he came back. He tried to open his mouth to say as much aloud, but then stopped to think.

Did he really decide to head towards Scott first because he was the closest pack that he was on good terms with, or did he do it for another reason?

He looked back up at Scott and saw those open and trusting eyes and felt himself falter.

Scott had always been an amazing enigma to Derek ever since he found out that Peter had bit him. He had truly wanted to teach Scott and to find a brother in him at the beginning. Time went on and Derek could admit to himself that they got close over those few years when Scott was in high school. No one should have had to go through all those challenges that were hunters and other monsters. Scott and his friends should have had a normal teenage life with the only worries being pimples and relationships.

But when the worse came, these people pulled through and Derek had always been proud and impressed with all of them, even if he never said it out loud and to their faces.

He knew that his thoughts would start to translate into emotions that could be smelled by most of those around him. So, he tried to stop his thoughts for now and felt his training kick in, letting no emotion leak out of him.

Finally, he replied to Scott with a simple, "Yeah, I guess you're right," before he looked down to his clenched fists and felt a small frown forming.

Scott spotted the look but kept quiet for now. He knew that he would need to talk to him later in private to learn what was really on the older werewolf's mind. He gave a look across the room to Stiles and found himself frowning too as he looked at his best friend. That was another conversation he would need to have later one as well. He felt his frown deepen before he forced himself to stop. Why did two of his closest friends have to be so broody and keep things to themselves?

Derek started talking again, bringing all the attention back onto him from everyone's drifting thoughts and tried to wrap up his tale by explaining how he eventually was able to sneak his way out.

After some time, they had finally healed him of the of the wolf's bane, thinking that they had broken Derek's spirit and that he would not find the strength to try and break free. It was not luck on his side when he finally escaped, but instead was him being patient throughout the two months to find a pattern.

Finding a flaw in their system was what he did best, and he made sure to escape in the quietest way possible, hoping to gain a few hours in distance before to many found out that he was gone.

When he finally got outside from where he had been kept, he noticed that he was still in the desert, just outside of Vegas based on the light pollution he could see in the sky.

He had been hidden in a nuclear bunker that had been abandoned since the testing that the government had been doing back in the Cold War days. Wasting no chance on hijacking a vehicle by the hunters, and with no other civilization around the bunker, Derek made the decision to head straight west. Making the choice right then and there to get to Scott as soon as possible, he headed out on his own two feet.

His trek had thankfully started out in the night but as the day started, the ground started warming up. The dry air was hard on his skin and lungs. It might have been December, but eh desert was always an unforgiving place. Even though he only needed to travel one state over, it was still a long walk that took a good two days on foot before he reached a decently sized town.

With nothing on him concerning identity, let alone money, it was difficult to find an easy way to get to Beacon Hills without stealing money. That is, until he arrived at that small town and eventually wound up snatching a few bucks to get a cheap hamburger and a bus ticket.

Still, even with that amount of help, and finally letting Derek rest his feet, it was another four hours before he could get to the growing town of Beacon Hills.

That was when, as it was nearing nine o'clock in the evening and a raging storm was overhead, did Derek finally make his way straight to the McCall house, wasting no time with rest.

.

.

With everyone caught up to what he had been through, Derek sat back into the couch once more, this time even more relaxed than before now that he was done talking.

Realizing that he had basically ran all the way without any proper rest, concern bloomed in Scott's chest as he stared at Derek, whose eyes were beginning to droop. Not wanting to say anything out loud to embarrass the proud werewolf, Scott instead silently looked to everyone else in the room and gave a look that he knew everyone had fallen for at least once since meeting him.

Malia and Stiles were the two to catch on right away and rolled their eyes. Reading his mind, they both nodded their heads before they began to stand up and stretch.

The motion seemed to awaken everyone else and soon enough, the whole room was moving around and getting ready to leave. The party was ending early it seemed and as they all slowly started migrating back into the front entrance, Scott and Derek were left in the living room on the couch.

Shifting his eyes over, Scott could see that Derek was looking at him in suspicion at how fast everyone decided to leave as soon as he started feeling the exhaustion catch up to him.

Scott just gave his famous grin as he stood up to follow everyone else so that he could properly bid everyone a good night.

Derek stayed where he was, too tired to move. He could hear the mumbled talking that would sometimes dip so low that he could not make out what they were saying. That made him frown in irritation. They were obviously trying to be secretive with him for whatever reason. Whatever.

If it meant that they would leave quicker so that he could finally fall asleep, they could keep whispering behind his back for all he cared.

When everyone had apparently left, the only ones left in the house were himself, Melissa, Scott, and Malia. Too tired to worry about pack politics, Melissa was the first one to call it night and headed upstairs, muttering about cleaning up in the morning, and leaving the remaining three in the living room.

Knowing that they were as far from being close, but still knowing that he was family, Malia was the first to sit down next to Derek. He gave a surprised grunt and a raised eyebrow at her.

After learning more about being a pack after Scott told her when he learned from Harry, she had become curious about everything and sought out Harry for lessons of her own. Most of the pack had been surprised to learn that she was one of the first to start being close to everyone and tried to be touchy. Most figured that it was easiest for her since she was more in tune with her other half than the others in the pack. When she felt instinct take over, she found easy to listen. When someone smelt sad, she would ask them what was wrong (though her social skills skill sometimes lacked, and the question came out blunt and not sounding as concerned as she really was).

When Malia sat near Derek, she placed her hand on his shoulder without hesitating. Knowing what she was trying to do, but slightly uncomfortable with it since they had not been raised together like family, Derek felt himself stiffen before he tried to force himself to relax at her touch.

Malia felt his muscles shift and finally let go and moved over a bit so that she was not crowding him out. It was not the outcome she had been hoping for, but it was a start. She wanted to be a family with him.

Instead, she turned to Scott and raised in eyebrow seeing him still standing there, looking at the two of them.

He finally sat down in the armchair that faced the couch the other two sat on. "So, what else has happened that you didn't want to talk about?"

"I thought that means that I  _don't_ want to talk about it."

"Well yeah, if it's a private thing and you don't want to blurt it out in front of everyone, but now it's just us. I noticed you were tired, so that's why I had everyone start to head out."

"I am tired, so can I go sleep and we can talk about this in the morning?"

"I really want to say yes, but I feel like this is something that you need to say right now. Ya know, to get it off your chest. I bet it will make you sleep better tonight," Scott said, trying to convince the other.

"That doesn't mean that I'll talk, you know."

Sighing at how bullheaded the other werewolf was being, Scott turned to Malia for help.

"We just want to make sure you're okay. You did come here right after escaping torture from hunters; you looked horrible when you first got here." She said, trying to sound logical to her cousin.

Derek simply rolls his eyes at the couple before he turned his head away from them and frowned. He did not get up to leave, Scott noticed, so he thought that it was a plus. He truly does not want to pressure Derek, but he feels like this is one of those times where 'tough love' or at least being pushy is the best bet.

Determination filled him and before the other two can blink, Scott stood back up and walked to stand in front of Derek.

He was secretly glad to see a look of shock and irritation on Derek's face since he had to look  _up_  at Scott from this position. Scott finally gave in and squatted to sit on his heels, level with Derek's eyes. He said nothing, hoping to get Derek to wiggle and eventually speak up first.

Scott was surprised to actually have it work when Derek finally said, "I don't want to talk about that, Scott. It's happened to me before, and honestly, I don't see it being the last either."

"Well then we don't have to talk about  _that._ What about anything else?" He said with a simple shrug of his shoulders.

"Like what?"

"Well, I'm curious to hear what you have to say about feeling the pull to come back here. Harry taught me some stuff, but I bet you know a lot since you were an alpha once."

"Is Harry that red haired guy?"

"Oh! You haven't met him. Uh, yeah that's him. Malia and I helped him out in Seattle back in July and now he's a part of the pack."

"I see that you're recruiting like I heard then."

"Oh, not you too," Scott says with an eye roll, "besides Harry, I've only every asked two other people, I swear."

The alpha was surprised to see Derek smile at that. He then said, "It felt…familiar."

"Huh?"

"I'm answering your question from before. Feeling that pull was familiar. Soothing actually." Scott and Malia could tell how much the turn in conversation was making Derek feel uncomfortable, yet he kept going. "Back when my mom was the alpha of the Hale pack, it used to feel like that whenever I would stay away for a while. Sometimes when I was being a moody brat, I would run away for a weekend. Growing up in a pack your whole life, certain things become even more than second nature to you. So, when I could feel myself losing scents and just not staying in contact with anyone, I would get sad. Sad and even more moody, if that was possible.

"That was usually how I ended up going back. I missed smelling like home and I would feel a tugging at my heart, telling me that I was being an idiot and that I needed to go back. I always listened and after I would get a slap from my mom, she would always pull me in for a hug, telling me that I didn't need to run away because my family was right in front of me. I would always smell her then and just feel happy, remembering that I did belong there.

"That's what pack is all about, Scott. You make a family and you protect them. No matter what. I know that I might have not been the best example of that in the past, but it will always be the truth, no matter what other people and other alphas might tell you.

"Humans are social creatures and so are wolves. If you think even for one moment that we don't belong somewhere,  _anywhere_ , with people at our side, then you don't know what it means to be one of us."

At the end of small speech, Derek finally looked Scott in the eye. There was a silent conversation going on in the older werewolf's eyes that Scott could not completely understand. It seemed that even after opening up to the two of them that much, there was something that Derek simply could not get out.

Then it clicked.

Like the final piece in a puzzle, the remaining section fell in alignment with the rest, and the hidden picture revealed itself.

"Derek." Scott said in a strong voice, determination filling him as he tried to tear down the last walls that the other male was trying to hold up with nothing more than willpower.

The way that Derek looked at him told Scott that his guess was correct. Though his beard was ridiculously outgrown at the moment, it did nothing to hide the slight tremble of his thinning lips. He would deny it for the rest of his life, but Scott and Malia  _knew_  in the moment that he had glassy eyes as he looked upon Scott.

Scott leaned forward just slightly, enough to end up resting one hand on the edge of Derek's knee. The contact made Derek twitch, but he did nothing to move away. Malia took a chance as well and brushed her fingers towards his shoulder, letting him know that she was there for support as well.

"Will you come back?"

"I – Scott, you have to know that there are  _so many_  reasons that I should say no to that."

"Sure, there are plenty actually. But I'm asking, and I wouldn't do that if I wasn't sure. Besides, you'll be hypocritical if you say no. You just talked about how we are the kind of people that need to be with others. No lone wolves."

"Ehem," Malia said as she raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry. No lone wolves and coyotes. But my point is still being made Derek, everyone belongs  _somewhere_  and that includes you. You've been wandering around by yourself long enough."

"No. I can't," Derek finally said, trying to ignore what he was hearing. "People are always trying to hunt me, catch me. I need to watch my back and I can't have distractions like a pack trying to stop me, there are people out there who could use my help, I work best alone, and… And." Derek, running out of reasons, started rubbing his hair in frustration.

He finally settled on leaving his hands over his eyes as he started to speak again, "I'm a curse. People get hurt because me, I get hurt because of me, and people always leave. Being alone is best for me, Scott. I can't – I don't need that kind of life. It just hurts and I'm tired of hurting-"

Derek cut himself off, giving a huge, shaky sigh. He finally lifted his hands away from his eyes and Scott felt his heart pull at the vulnerable face that was underneath.

"Scott – can I come back?" Derek lent forward, putting his face in his hands as he asked, embarrassed and defeated that he finally said what he had wanted to ever since Scott had opened the front door to greet him.

Hearing no answer, Derek almost thought that he would be denied before he felt arms touch his shoulders. Surprised, he looked up only for Scott to shove himself in his arms, wrapping around Derek's entire form. Head pushed to the side to rest on Scott's shoulder, Derek saw Malia right in front of him. It was bad enough that he was acting like this in front of Scott, but to have  _another_  person in the room was even more uncomfortable.

He was unprepared for her to lean forward and put her forehead against his own. It was odd, concerning how much they did not know about each other – even if they were cousins – but it still felt nice. She kept still like that, eventually closing her eyes and just sitting there while Scott's arms were still wrapped around him.

He felt like a sandwich. But it was the calmest Derek had felt in a long time.

Eventually moving to try and do  _something_  with his own arms, he was glad to see the two of them move away. Though, it also made him a little sad to have them leave so soon. Ugh, pack feelings were already forming again.

Almost at once, they each gave a big sigh as they each lent back to stare at one another.

"Yes, Derek you can come back," Scott finally said. His smile was blinding, and even though the other two rolled their eyes and looked at each other in exasperation at his happy-go-lucky attitude, they smiled back. "You have always been welcomed back. It would have not mattered if you came back last year or three years from now. I've known you ever since I was turned. You belong here in Beacon Hills and if you can have me as an alpha, I would want nothing more than to have you join me and be a part of my pack. My family."

"Thank you, Scott," Derek said in the sincerest voice Scott had ever heard. He leaned back against the couch one last time.

Before Scott could even think of another thing to ask, he and Malia heard the deep breaths of Derek as he finally succumbed to sleep.

The couple debated on trying to move him to one of the spare bedrooms upstairs but thought it best to let him be for the night. Instead, Scott grabbed a blanked from a closet and draped it over Derek. Not wanting to leave him alone for the night, they decided to stay in the living room too as Malia curled up on the other side of the couch, stealing the other end of Derek's blanket to keep her feet warm.

Scott went back to the recliner and as he got comfortable, he looked over to the couch and felt a content smile grow. He pack was growing and the feeling he got as he finally felt a phantom 'click' of Derek finally being a beta to him, he felt himself drift off feeling like the luckiest person in the world.

**End Chapter 7**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that Derek might have seemed a bit out of character at the end there, but honestly feel like he is one of those people with a real strong exterior, but underneath, he is just as human as the rest of us. He has emotions and when he finally warms up to those he cares about, he will allow himself to feel like he does not need to hide behind that strong persona all the time.
> 
> Another reason that I wrote him like that, is because I felt like this was the only route that I could go when it came to get him to join the pack. Don't worry though, I don't plan to go completely oc with him. Just know that he can be happy and sad too if the need arises.
> 
> Also, if you are interested in the timeline, don't worry, I will post it with the next time. That chapter had important things in it that are in the timeline so just wait for one more update!


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